The Obama administration is slashing for-profit college funding, a move that could cost thousands of kids their sports scholarship to the University of Phoenix. Harry Reid is allying himself with Burning Man attendees, setting up a potentially awkward confrontation between the Senate minority leader and Grover Norquist at the nudist hacky sack tent. And despite opposing Alexander Hamilton’s removal from the $10 bill, Mitch McConnell once called for Ronald Reagan to take his place. That raises an obvious question: what kind of RINO only wants Ronald Reagan on just ONE bill? This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, July 1st, 2015:
Like most of you, we won't even be pretend working tomorrow afternoon. HuffPost Hill will return Monday. Happy Birthday, America!
HILLARY CLINTON GETS MONEY - But can she have it haul? Sam Stein and Paul Blumenthal: "Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign on Wednesday announced a massive fundraising haul in the quarter that ended on June 30, further cementing her status as the clear front-runner in the 2016 race. All told, the Democratic candidate and former secretary of state raised more than $45 million in primary campaign contributions between her campaign announcement in April and the end of June. That figure, according to a Clinton aide, is the most that any candidate has ever raised in their opening quarter, topping President Barack Obama's roughly $42 million in the first quarter of 2011." [HuffPost]
BEHIND THE SCENES OF HILLARY'S LGBT PUSH IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT - Amanda Terkel: "In May 2009, just months into her new position as secretary of State, Hillary Clinton took a major step toward changing the way the agency treats its employees: She announced that gay diplomats would receive benefits similar to those received by their heterosexual counterparts, which they had previously been denied. Over her next four years at the State Department, Clinton continued to push for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality both in Foggy Bottom and around the world. Her emails, some of which were released this week by the State Department, show that she and her top advisers were looking for ways to move forward on the issue -- and watching the discontent between LGBT groups and President Barack Obama. 'I think the emails speak for themselves -- they show someone deeply committed to preventing human rights abuse of LGBT people on the global stage,' said Richard Socarides, who served as President Bill Clinton's top adviser on LGBT issues." [HuffPost]
@JohannaBarr: Typos from Hillary
GAY MARRIAGE OPPONENTS LOSING STEAM - Is this really the gay hill they want to die on? "Few Americans think the Supreme Court's ruling last week will end the fight over gay marriage, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds -- but even those who oppose its legalization are deeply divided on how fervently politicians should continue to push the issue. In the survey, Americans approve of the court's decision by an 8-point margin. Some 74 percent of those who support the court's decision and 80 percent who oppose it say the argument is likely to continue. And while 45 percent say politicians who share their views should concentrate on finding ways to continue to fight against gay marriage, 44 percent of respondents say politicians should express their disapproval, but then move on to other issues." [HuffPost]
Check out Dana Liebelson's story about kids in prison. Cruel and all-too-usual.
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - We're told Paul Ryan's Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing next week on how to get more work out of Social Security Disability Insurance recipients. The hearing is the latest development in a slow-motion Social Security battle that will probably flare up at some point in the next six months. Tune in to find out if "welfare reform" is coming to a disabled person near you!
The June jobs report comes out tomorrow instead of Friday.
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OBAMA OFFICIALS KNEW OF CLINTON'S PRIVATE EMAIL - Also, LOL, nobody likes Mark Penn. Lisa Lerer and Matthew Daly: "Senior Obama administration officials, including the White House chief of staff, knew as early as 2009 that Hillary Rodham Clinton was using a private email address for her government correspondence, according to some 3,000 pages of correspondence released by the State Department late Tuesday night. The chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, requested Clinton's email address on Sept. 5, 2009, according to one email. His request came three months after top Obama strategist David Axelrod asked the same question of one of Clinton's top aides. But it's unclear whether the officials realized Clinton, now the leading Democratic presidential candidate, was running her email from a server located in her home in Chappaqua, New York - a potential security risk and violation of administration policy. ...The emails also reflect the vast scope of Clinton's network, after several decades in Washington. She advises her future 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta to wear socks to bed, and passes on advice from former campaign strategist Mark Penn with the note 'overlook the source.'" [AP]
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TARGETING FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES - Turns out majoring in Farmville won't help you land that dream job at ADM. Allie Grasgreen: "On Wednesday, the Obama administration will begin choking off the financial lifeline of for-profit colleges whose graduates can’t find well-paying jobs -- and the move is likely to accelerate a wave of shutdowns for an industry taking assaults from all sides. Reining in the multibillion-dollar industry has been the administration’s goal for most of President Barack Obama’s term in office, fueled by complaints that for-profit colleges lure students with misleading promises, then saddle them with debts they can’t pay back despite their newly granted degrees. Its latest tool is the Education Department’s long-debated 'gainful employment' rule, which requires colleges to track their graduates’ performance in the workforce and eventually will cut off funding for career training programs that fall short." [Politico]
RAND PAUL HITTING UP MARIJUANA INDUSTRY - More like a lobbying blitzed, amirite? Katie Zezima: The marijuana industry is having its second annual trade show at the Colorado Convention Center, and there was a very special event on its sidelines: a presidential fundraiser. Rand Paul tapped into a new money-raising well Tuesday: the marijuana industry, holding a private fundraiser at the National Cannabis Industry Association's business summit and expo here. The price to get into the closed-door event not far from the exhibition hall? $2,700. The cannabis business was not legal during the 2012 presidential cycle and Paul is believed to be the first major presidential candidate to raise campaign funds from the industry. 'We are now establishing ourselves as a true industry with a professional focus and we have issues that we need to have dealt with on the federal level,' said Taylor West, deputy director of the association. 'We have candidates and elected officials who are seeing that need for reform.' Speaking to reporters Monday in Reno, Nevada, Paul said the federal government shouldn't meddle with states that want to legalize marijuana." [WaPo]
WHY DOES MITCH MCCONNELL HATE CAPITALISM? -Steven Dennis: "When Ronald Reagan died, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., proposed replacing Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill with the Republican president. But McConnell slammed the Treasury Department’s plan to replace Hamilton to make room for a woman when asked about it Tuesday. 'A really bad idea, which is not to say that some woman or women in American history shouldn’t be honored, but the last person who ought to be removed from currency is the person who basically founded the American banking system and created the financial system for the United States, Alexander Hamilton,' McConnell said in a local TV interview." [Roll Call]
DONALD TRUMP WILL BE ANNOYING US A LITTLE BIT LONGER: POLL - Of course the question in such a crowded field is which candidate is a voter's second choice, but we're pretty sure Trump doesn't really care about that kind of thing. Igor Bobic: "He told us it was going to be huge. Truly one of the biggest ever. And now Donald Trump has some polling data to back him up. The celebrity hotelier, who announced his campaign for president in June, is surging in national and early primary polls. Trump placed second in a national CNN pollreleased Wednesday, with 12 percent of GOP primary voters saying they were most likely to support him in 2016. In fact, he outranked every other candidate in the crowded Republican field except former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who garnered 19 percent. In the all-important early caucus state of Iowa, Trump is locked in a fight for second place with famed neurosurgeon Ben Carson. According to a Quinnipiac University poll also released Wednesday, the two candidates trail Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who is expected to enter the race later this month, at 10 percent each." [HuffPost]
LOL Macy's has cut ties with Trump. His take: "Clearly, NBC and Macy’s support illegal immigration…"
JIMMY CARTER CAN'T EVEN WITH BARACK OBAMA - Jimmy Carter has established himself as the Democratic Party's very own fist-shaking old man on a porch denouncing the young. Dhyana Taylor: "Former President Jimmy Carter said recently that he finds President Barack Obama's success on the world stage to be 'minimal.' 'I think he’s done some good things domestically like the health program and so forth, but on the world stage, just to be as objective about it as I can, I can’t think of many nations in the world where we have a better relationship now than we did when he took over,' he said in a conversation with Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson last week. 'If you look at Russia, if you look at England, if you look at China, if you look at Egypt and so forth -- I’m not saying it’s his fault -- but we have not improved our relationship with individual countries and I would say that the United States influence and prestige and respect in the world is probably lower now than it was six or seven years ago,' he added. The 39th president repeatedly said that he did not blame Obama for the current state of world affairs. Instead, Carter attributed the decline to an historical trend of the U.S. relinquishing 'its unquestioned domination of world politics and cultural influence.'" [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a crow being a jerk to a dog
HARRY REID LOVES BURNING MAN - He only barters with his fists, however. Amber Phillips: "As such fights in the desert are wont to do, it's over flushing toilets, air conditioning and hot water. And it's pitting Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the hippies against the federal government. The Reno Gazette Journal reported Friday that in order to permit September's Burning Man festival, the federal agency responsible for the land where the festival is held -- and therefore the safety of the people camping out on the land -- is requesting special housing accommodations for its 'VIP' officials...the Bureau of Land Management wants Burning Man organizers to spend between $1 and $5 million on a compound within festival bounds for 'flushing toilets to be cleaned daily by Burning Man staff, a laundry with washers and dryers, on-demand hot water, air conditioning, vanity mirrors, refrigerators and couches.' … Apparently the government's request didn't go over well with Harry Reid. The Senate minority leader sent a letter Friday to BLM's parent agency, the Department of the Interior, urging officials to drop their request and just camp out in the desert like everyone else." [WaPo]
COMFORT FOOD
- Stephen Colbert hosted a public access show in Monroe, Michigan.
- The trailer for the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic is live.
TWITTERAMA
@fakedansavage: To protect one-person-one-other-person marriage we must ban straight marriage. The risk is too great.
@ibalkhy: What time is the July 4th weekend?
@abrahamjoseph : I am one forced meme away from moving to the middle of the fucking desert
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