“Florida” on The Daily Caller

A Florida man is facing a battery charge for allegedly shoving his ex-girlfriend’s mother inside a fold-out couch, police charge. (more)

Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wants to eliminate U.S. funding for the U.N. Human Rights Council, which she deemed a “waste of taxpayer dollars,” the Republican representative told The Hill. (more)

1.) Remember: You’re a liar and/or an idiot if you call it ‘a government takeover of health care’ — Tomorrow, a group of bureaucrats will meet to determine which treatments private insurance companies will be mandated to cover, and for how long. “The Obama administration faces a tough balancing act,” writes Kaiser Health News. “The benefits package must be broad enough to be comprehensive but not too broad as to be unaffordable. Patient advocates and industry lobbyists already are drawing up wish lists for items they want covered – including autism therapy, obesity treatments, infertility treatments and unlimited chemotherapy visits.” AEI’s Joe Antos told KHN, “This is an invitation for all kinds of lobbying from every conceivable disease group and provider group in the country.” For instance: Joe Nadglowski, CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition, thinks insurers should be required to cover bariatric surgery. “Adding a wider range of treatments would raise premium costs, Nadglowski acknowledges, but could save money over time if people sought both prevention and treatment for obesity.” That’s a lot of ifs. (more)

1.) We will all die of old age before anyone cuts spending — After a largely symbolic repeal of Obamacare, what will Republicans do next to cut spending? Absolutely nothing, apparently. “Entitlement reform will only be done on a bipartisan basis. So we’re waiting for signals from the president as to whether or not that’s a discussion he’s willing to have,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, in a Thursday press conference. “The president must embrace it.” The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward writes, “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, acted on Tuesday as if Obama was the one who was just elected based on promises to cut government spending” and that “House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio Republican, had no answer Thursday for NBC’s Brian Williams when asked to name ‘a program right now that we could do without.’” Head, desk. (more)

NewsFeed hopes he’s a cat person. Because these are some pretty large cats. (more)

A Florida doctor looking to relieve some holiday stress was killed by her mechanical neck massager, police said. (more)

When it comes to higher education, more may not always be better — at least when it comes to starting salaries for graduates. (more)

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets are paying for their sideline shenanigans. (more)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Lawrence Gauthier, the 61-year old arrested Sunday by Volusia County, Fla., sheriff’s deputies for calling 911 and demanding that the media be arrested, has a simple explanation for his actions: “I fucked up.” The emergency services call had nothing to do with politics, though. Gauthier rarely watches the news, and when he does, it isn’t national cable news, he told The Daily Caller. (more)

1.) John Shadegg: House GOP is ‘on probation’ — After 16 years in the House, Rep. John Shadegg is retiring to Arizona. The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward caught up with the son of Barry Goldwater altar ego Stephen Shadegg on his way out the door. Ward asked him, for instance, what makes the Tea Party different from previous conservative waves, such as Newt Gingrich’s 1994 production, in which Shadegg had a walk-on part as a newly elected congressman. “When the Gingrich revolution happened, the Gingrich revolution collapsed,” Shadegg told Ward. “It had betrayed its supporters.” By “it” Shadegg means Republican detractors and other “old bulls” like Tom DeLay, who claimed in 2005 that the government could not cut its spending any further. Now the party is getting a second chance, Shadegg said. “What happens to this class? Does this class get turned by Washington? Does the class change or does this class actually change Washington? I personally think that’s the $64,000 question.” Or, you know, the $1.7 trillion question. (more)

1.) Big business still Obama’s Achilles heel — When John Engler, the former Republican governor of Michigan, was named to the head of the Business Roundtable, “one of the first people to call” him was Valerie Jarrett, a personal advisor to Pres. Obama. Jarrett no doubt wished to communicate that Pres. Obama was game to work with the BRT (“We go play hoop!”), a gesture that the White House hasn’t made toward the professional left in ages now! Engler’s not here to play, however. According to The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward, “much of the group’s work on health care over the next two years will be looking for how Obama’s health care overhaul might ‘threaten’ the ability of employers to continue providing insurance.” Maybe the BRT should do what Waffle House and a number of unions did, which is lobby for exemptions from some of obamacare’s requirements? That leaves the issue of the mandate, and prices popping through the roof when healthy people decline insurance while sick people buy it up. Also: the totally unenforceable nature of it all. Back to the drawing board! (more)

Police believe carbon monoxide poisoning may have caused the deaths of five teenagers in a Hialeah, Fla. motel room, WSVN-TV reported Monday. (more)

1.) Feds may have to bail out Detroit for a second time — If the federal government decides, in its finite wisdom, that poorly run states and municipalities do not deserve to sink or swim based on the electoral acumen of their residents (or lack thereof), and chooses instead to “bail out” bankrupt members of the American federation, there will be some irony in the decision. In Detroit, two of the city’s public pensions are under investigation for “risky investing” that cost the two funds $480 million in three years. According to the Detroit Free Press, “many of the investments involved secretive middlemen, who pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars, or were vetted by controversial investment adviser Adrian Anderson and his firm, North Point Advisors.” Anderson is currently under investigation by the SEC, but has not been charged. In the meantime, “the pensions are paying the legal bills of Anderson and a second adviser who scrutinized failed real estate deals.” Have you heard the one about the burglar who fell through the woman’s skylight and then demanded that she pay for his medical bills? This is sort of like that. (more)

Every year, the Suncoast District of the U.S. Postal Service in Florida receives on average about 1000 letters to Santa. But this year they’ve noticed an increase in letters to God. (more)

1.) How the left astroturfed net neutrality into existence — Despite what you may have heard, yesterday’s net neutrality vote at the FCC wasn’t the result of millions of Americans or even tens of thousands of Americans waking up and saying, “I think I am going to suddenly care about this!” No, like most Washington success stories, yesterday’s enslavement of the Internet was made possible by a small group of people with a lot of money. “After McCain-Feingold passed, several of the foundations involved in the effort began shifting their attention to “media reform”—a movement to impose government controls on Internet companies somewhat related to the long-defunct “Fairness Doctrine” that used to regulate TV and radio companies,” writes the WSJ’s John Fund. Those outfits are Pew Charitable Trusts, Bill Moyers’s Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, the Joyce Foundation, George Soros’s Open Society Institute, the Ford Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, all of which have given money to left-wing froth factory Free Press. As a result of Free Press’s close ties to staffers for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, net neutrality crusaders gamed the debate from the beginning: “Some of the same foundations that have spent years funding net neutrality advocacy research ended up funding the FCC-commissioned study that evaluated net neutrality research.” (more)

Elin Nordegren reportedly has a new boyfriend. According to rumors, Nordegren’s new boyfriend is a 35-year-old South African student at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida. Tiger Woods’ ex-wife is actually attending this college part-time, to study psychology. After the most publicized and expensive divorce of the year, she seems to be finding new ways to pass the time and move on. Now, gossip columns speculate that Nordegren is finally finding a new boyfriend to move on with as well. (more)

1.) Inouye and other Senate dinosaurs make one last mad hobble for cash register — “In the waning days of the lame duck congressional session, Democrats controlling the Senate — in collaboration with a handful of old school Republicans — are pushing to wrap $1.27 trillion worth of unfinished budget work into a single ‘omnibus’ appropriations bill,” reports the AP. Sen. Jim DeMint hates this bill so much that he has threatened to read all 1,900 pages aloud if his colleagues do not make it smaller. To that end, a small contingent of fiscal guerillas are hoping to address the federal budget in the new year, when reinforcements will have arrived from Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Utah, and Kentucky. Until then, it’s DeMint, McCain, and Coburn attempting to hold back a red sea of pork. Their efforts are not completely futile. After requesting an earmark for the Kentucky National Guard to eradicate the most valuable cash crop in the United States, Sen. Mitch McConnell suddenly realized that he is not supposed to be spending other people’s money willy-nilly anymore, and had the earmark removed. “This is exactly what the American people said Nov. 2 they didn’t want us to do,” a chastened McConnell said. (more)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Red Sox threw a curveball at the rest of major league baseball last night, agreeing to terms with All-Star left fielder Carl Crawford on a blockbuster seven-year contract worth $142 million. (more)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Yankees have made their offer to Cliff Lee. (more)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Derek Jeter has navigated an almost impossible path in his time as Yankees shortstop: The most public of people leading the most private of lives. (more)