Article:

WASHINGTON—Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama called Friday for a return to negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, a day after talks cratered in a very public fashion when Republicans abandoned House Speaker John Boehner's backup plan.

 In truth, talks to secure a big deficit-reduction deal had already broken down Monday afternoon in the office of Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio), a Wall Street Journal reconstruction shows. Mr. Boehner had been negotiating a deal with the White House to let tax rates rise for upper-income people.

 Mr. Boehner, irritated with the White House, was finding it hard to keep his troops in line as details of his negotiations with Mr. Obama leaked out. In the speaker's office just off the Capitol's majestic rotunda that afternoon, he told his top lieutenants that he was already thinking about a pared-down backup plan. "In the absence of an agreement, 'Plan B' is the plan," he told his deputies, according to a script he read them that afternoon.

 Enlarge Image Close Charles Dharapak/Associated Press President Barack Obama, pictured, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor failed to see eye to eye on talks to resolve the looming fiscal deficit, which broke down this week amid growing acrimony on both sides

 Enlarge Image Close AP Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

 Enlarge Image Close J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press Eric Cantor

 One by one, they came out in favor of Plan B and against the broader deal.

 House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) said the new tax revenue the broader plan called for was too high. Then Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), whom Mr. Boehner had spent weeks wooing, said he couldn't sign on because it didn't make structural changes in entitlements.

 The speaker went ahead with Plan B, which collapsed Thursday night before he could even bring it to a vote, leaving talks at a perilous standstill just days before the year-end fiscal-cliff deadline. Even if an agreement can be reached by then, both sides expect it to be a small package doing little to tackle the long-term budget woes and deferring the battle until next year.

 A review of the negotiations, based on interviews with a dozen aides and lawmakers, suggests the problems lay in Mr. Boehner's inability to coax his rank-and-file to support a deal that raises taxes on higher-income Americans. Another factor was what Republicans saw as President Obama's unwillingness to bend when a deal was in sight, jamming the speaker with a deal his party couldn't swallow.

 The negotiations offer little evidence November's election brought the president and House Republicans closer together. If anything, the talks poisoned an already distrustful relationship.

 Mr. Boehner could soon face a decision whether to call for a vote on some sort of plan that could avert the cliff's spending cuts and tax increases but might imperil his position if he had to rely on Democrats to pass it.

 Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn't reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault.

 Falling Over the Fiscal Cliff See some scenarios for how different groups of people may be affected by the tax changes that will take place if the fiscal cliff isn't resolved by the Jan. 1., 2013, deadline. View Interactive Tracking Dividends Investors are seeing a jump in the number of companies making big one-time payouts to stem a possible increase to the dividend-tax rate. See which companies have announced special dividends. View Interactive More photos and interactive graphics

 At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?"

 "You get nothing," the president said. "I get that for free."

 After the election, Boehner aides tried to shape the debate by offering early concessions, including that the GOP would agree to raise new tax revenue. A speech Mr. Boehner planned to give was rewritten 18 times and included input from top Republican leaders.

 He and Mr. Obama didn't sit down together for another 10 days. The session began genially. But tension quickly emerged over the president's call to include increasing the U.S.'s borrowing limit in any final package.

 Responded Mr. Boehner: "I've found in my life that everything I've ever wanted has come with price."

 Mr. Obama told the speaker he wasn't willing to play games with the debt ceiling.

 Staffs got to work on the outline of a deal. In their first offer, Republicans wanted to essentially preserve Bush-era rates set to expire Dec. 31 while raising some new revenue through a tax overhaul in 2013. The White House made clear it wouldn't agree to a plan that didn't raise some tax rates immediately.

 Brett Loper, the speaker's top policy aide, prodded White House officials to look for tax revenue elsewhere. In phone calls and meetings, he steered them to tax shelters and suggested limiting deductions for tax-exempt municipal bonds.

 National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling told Mr. Loper it was impossible to hit revenue targets without raising tax rates.

 At one point, Mr. Loper said, "I'm asking you for help. Are you going to help me or not?"

 Last August, President Obama and Congress put the U.S. economy on course to go over a "fiscal cliff." WSJ's David Wessel tells you everything you need to know about the "cliff" but were afraid to ask.

 Stocks sank as investors confronted a new level of budget disarray in Washington, but the market was on pace to notch gains for the last full trading week of the year. Brendan Conway has details on The News Hub. Photo: Associated Press.

 Political analyst Charlie Cook looks back on the year in politics. WSJ reporters assess the state of the fiscal cliff talks and discuss the chances of gun control legislation in the wake of the school shootings in Connecticut.

 The quest to avert the fiscal cliff is as uncertain as ever after rival plans were rejected. WSJ reporters break down how the negotiations will play out from this point on.

 Paul Vigna discusses the market fallout from the collapse of a fiscal-cliff deal in Washington with Damian Paletta and Steven Russolillo. Photo: Getty Images.

 Clemency Burton-Hill discusses the latest on the fiscal-cliff negotiations with Andrew Ackerman, and Jack Nicas looks at the millions of mental-health records missing from gun-dealer databases. Photo: AP.

 Shortly after, aides to Mr. Boehner suggested he call the president.

 Columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady on the failure of Boehner's Plan B. Photo: Pool

 Mr. Obama insisted on raising tax rates for those with household income above $250,000. The House GOP wanted significant spending cuts and fundamental changes to Medicare and other entitlement programs in exchange for new tax revenue.

 The president repeatedly reminded Mr. Boehner of the election results: "You're asking me to accept Mitt Romney's tax plan. Why would I do that?" At another point, the speaker noted his GOP majority would also return next year.

 The White House's first formal offer, presented Nov. 29 left Mr. Boehner incredulous. It included a request for $1.6 trillion in additional tax revenue over 10 years, a permanent increase in the debt ceiling and money for road projects and other year-end priorities. In return it offered spending cuts of $400 billion—25 cents for each dollar in new revenue.

 Taking a drag on his cigarette, Mr. Boehner asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who had presented the plan, a number of questions but didn't fully engage him. Across the Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky) said he laughed at the offer.

 The same sticking points kept rearing up—the White House insisting on more tax revenue than Republicans could stomach, and the Republicans demanding deeper cuts than the White House would accept.

 During one session in the Capitol with White House's legislative liaison Rob Nabors, Mr. Loper from the Boehner camp asked, referring to a near-deal during last year's debt-ceiling fight: "Can you get back into the zone of where you were in July 2011?"

 "No," Mr. Nabors replied. "We were probably overextended then, and there's no way we would do it now."

 Mr. Nabors said if they couldn't reach a deal, they should keep lines of communication alive. The typically serious Mr. Loper asked, "So, you're breaking up with us?"

 On Dec. 13, Mr. Boehner went to the White House at the president's request, joking he was going to the woodshed.

 The president told him he could choose one of two doors. The first represented a big deal. If Mr. Boehner chose it, the president said, the country and financial markets would cheer. Door No. 2 represented a spike in interest rates and a global recession.

 Mr. Boehner said he wanted a deal along the lines of what the two men had negotiated in the summer of 2011 in a fight over raising the debt ceiling. "You missed your opportunity on that," the president told him.

 That night, the speaker and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) decided to make the biggest concession so far.

 As the country the next day digested news of a brutal school shooting in Connecticut, Mr. Boehner called the president and for the first time offered to let tax rates rise—on income above $1 million. The president acknowledged the concession but said Mr. Boehner's plan wasn't raising enough revenue.

 News broke the next night both about the concession and that the speaker was willing to extend the borrowing limit. On Sunday, the White House sent a plane to fly Mr. Boehner back to Washington for a morning appointment with the president on Monday, the day it now appears the deal fell apart.

 In that session, the president held firm for $1.2 trillion in additional tax revenue, a second step down from his original offer. Mr. Boehner asked for another $100 billion in spending cuts but couldn't get a commitment.

 Finally, the speaker said, "Well, you and I can sit here and stare at each other," or he could leave and they would talk later.

 Back in the Capitol, Mr. Boehner told Mr. Cantor the president wasn't moving. They agreed to call him. On the call, Mr. Boehner restated he needed $1 in spending cuts for every $1 in revenue raised. He dropped a prior demand to increase the Medicare eligibility age.

 The president told Mr. Boehner that he was willing to make some concessions on taxes and spending, but cautioned that they needed to retain Democratic votes for the bill to pass.

 The speaker raised the prospect of moving a backup bill. White House officials said Mr. Boehner didn't reveal what Plan B comprised. Administration officials expected a few more days of back-and-forth, but the speaker thought the prospects were dim for a big deal.

 Meeting with his leadership team in the afternoon, Mr. Boehner read from a script prepared by his staff, telling lawmakers he still wanted a big deal but the rank and file needed to know the plan by a 9 a.m. conference meeting the next morning, Tuesday. He encouraged his colleagues to accept the backup plan.

 "I'm going to keep the proposal on the table," he said of the broader deal. "As I told the president, I'm not making an ultimatum. The offer stays on the table, even if we move on Plan B."

 His lieutenants made clear they preferred Plan B to the one Mr. Boehner was trying to broker.

 The speaker called the president with news the House would move ahead with the backup bill, which would preserve Bush-era rates for all income below $1 million. The president was incensed.

 As the week progressed, support didn't materialize, with some GOP members complaining that the bill raised taxes and others that it didn't have enough spending cuts. Mr. Boehner pulled it Thursday night and read the Serenity Prayer to members, whom he then dismissed.

 On Friday afternoon, the president spoke to both Mr. Boehner and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid in a bid to resurrect a deal. Soon afterward he left the White House for his annual family vacation in Hawaii.

 Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com

 A version of this article appeared December 22, 2012, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: How 'Cliff' Talks Hit the Wall. ||||| The juiciest passage in the Wall Street Journal’s behind-the-scenes report on the fiscal cliff negotiations comes when House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) asks President Obama whether he can have the deal he rejected in 2011. “You missed your opportunity on that,” the president replies.

 Ouch.

 But the most important insight into the White House’s strategic thinking comes when Boehner says to the president, ”I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?” Obama’s response is cold and telling. ”You get nothing,” the president said. “I get that for free.”

 That, right there, is the central fact of negotiations for the Democrats and the central problem for the Republicans. At the end of this year, more than $5 trillion in scheduled tax increases begin. But the White House doesn’t believe that’s real revenue. Democrats in Congress won’t permit that kind of a tax increase on ordinary Americans. The White House won’t permit that kind of a tax increase on ordinary Americans.

 But they’re certain they can hold onto almost $800 billion of it. The Senate already passed a bill letting the Bush tax cuts lapse for income over $250,000. That bill is very, very popular. The White House expects that if we go over the cliff, the House will have to pass that bill, too, and the president would have little choice but to sign it. That bill raises taxes by a bit more than $700 billion, which is less than the $1.6 trillion the White House wants. But that $700 billion, to the White House, is the baseline: If they get nothing else, they will certainly get that.

 And that’s why Boehner’s offer of $800 billion doesn’t impress. The White House already has some $700 billion in the bank, as they see it. The reason to negotiate with Boehner is that an agreement with him could, in theory, push that number well above $1 trillion while stabilizing the debt and avoiding the economic pain of falling off the fiscal cliff. But there’s no reason to cut a deal with Boehner in which the White House gives up spending cuts in order to get a tax increase they can have anyway.

 The talk in Washington now is about a “small deal.” That would likely include the Senate tax bill, some policy to turn off at least the defense side of the sequester and a handful of other policies to blunt or delay various parts of the fiscal cliff.

 That’s not a very good deal for the short-term health of the economy. Depending on how much of the fiscal cliff gets delayed, we could tip into recession anyway. But it could lead, in the end, to much more revenue than a “big deal” now.

 Here’s how it would go. Some time in the next month or so, the small deal would pass and the White House would pocket that $700-plus billion in tax revenue. They really would get that for free, just as the president told Boehner.

 But pressure would quickly mount to strike a larger deal, both because there would be another fiscal cliff coming and because the debt ceiling would need to be raised. (The White House swears they won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling, but it’s not exactly clear what that will mean in practice.)

 The White House would insist that the next deal includes a 1:1 ratio of tax increases — all of which could come through Republican-friendly tax reform — to spending cuts. So a subsequent deal that included $600 billion or $700 billion in spending cuts would also include $600 billion or $700 billion in tax increases, leading to total new revenue in the range of $1.2 trillion to $1.4 trillion.

 There’s precedent for this. After the 2010 midterms, Republicans forced the passage of the Budget Control Act, which included more than a trillion dollars in spending cuts and no offsetting tax increases. They’ve subsequently refused to count those cuts toward any future deals. If the president, after winning the 2012 election, pocketed $700 billion in tax increases and insisted that revenue was unrelated to the next negotiation, he’d simply be following Boehner’s lead.

 All of which is to say, if Boehner had taken the White House’s deal in 2011, he could’ve stopped the tax increase at $800 billion. If he took their most recent deal, he could stop it at $1.2 trillion. But if he insists on adding another round to the negotiations — one that will likely come after the White House pockets $700 billion in tax increases — then any deal in which gets the entitlement cuts he wants is going to mean a deal in which he accepts even more tax increases than the White House is currently demanding.

 Today, Boehner wishes he’d taken the deal the president offered him in 2011. A year from now, he might wish he’d taken the deal the president offered him in 2012. ||||| 9 days to cliff, 30 days to inauguration -- OBAMA TO BOEHNER: 'I get that for free' -- KERRY to be 'Mr. Secretary' -- Leibo goes to NFL game with Rubio, Alex - Diane Sawyer, Ted Cruz bday Presented by

 SEN. BOB CORKER (R-Tenn.), to Peter Cook on tomorrow’s Bloomberg TV “Capitol Gains”: “It's time for us to get specific and not create another fiscal cliff, which is really what's being proposed -- creating another fiscal cliff to deal with this fiscal cliff.”

 PRESIDENT OBAMA, in the Brady Press Briefing Room before he left for Hawaii: “In the next few days, I've asked leaders of Congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for 2 million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction. That's an achievable goal. That can get done in 10 days. … I want to wish every American a merry Christmas. And because we didn’t get this done, I will see you next week.”

 Story Continued Below

 PALACE INTRIGUE – “How 'Cliff' Talks Hit the Wall: Behind Scenes, Boehner Failed to Sell Republicans on Taxes, While Obama's Spending Plans Rankled,” by Patrick O’Connor and Peter Nicholas: “[A]ccording to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, ‘I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?’ ‘You get nothing,’ the president said. ‘I get that for free.’ … Responded Mr. Boehner: ‘I've found in my life that everything I've ever wanted has come with price.’ … Brett Loper, the speaker's top policy aide, prodded White House officials to look for tax revenue elsewhere. In phone calls and meetings, he steered them to tax shelters and suggested limiting deductions for tax-exempt municipal bonds. … Loper said, ‘I'm asking you for help. Are you going to help me or not?’ …

 “ During one session in the Capitol with White House's legislative liaison Rob Nabors, Mr. Loper … asked, referring to a near-deal during last year's debt-ceiling fight: ‘Can you get back into the zone of where you were in July 2011?’ ‘No,’ Mr. Nabors replied. ‘We were probably overextended then, and there's no way we would do it now.’ Mr. Nabors said if they couldn't reach a deal, they should keep lines of communication alive. … Loper asked, ‘So, you're breaking up with us?’

 “On Dec. 13, Mr. Boehner went to the White House at the president's request, joking he was going to the woodshed. The president told him he could choose one of two doors. The first represented a big deal. If Mr. Boehner chose it, the president said, the country and financial markets would cheer. Door No. 2 represented a spike in interest rates and a global recession. Mr. Boehner said he wanted a deal along the lines of what the two men had negotiated in the summer of 2011 in a fight over raising the debt ceiling. ‘You missed your opportunity on that,’ the president told him.”

 --PLAYBOOK BACKSTORY, from someone familiar with the negotiations: “A few weeks ago, the WSJ asked the White House and the Speaker’s office to participate in a Newsweek-book-style project where they shared information about the talks on an embargoed basis to reporters who were taken off the daily story to avoid conflicts. The Speaker’s office agreed. Dan Pfeiffer and the White House refused to participate because they felt it had the potential to hamper the ability to get a deal in the short term, and was bad for the working relationship in the long term. After the Speaker’s Plan B blew up in his face on Thursday night, the WSJ decided to go ahead and publish the story, including private conversations between the leaders, … even though we don't yet have a deal, poisoning the water going forward.”

 --JERRY SEIB, Washington Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, emails: “We set out to provide the most accurate account of the deficit deliberations possible, and reached out to all sides along the way. Nobody involved was surprised by the appearance of our story today.”

 --PLAYBOOK TRUTH BOMB: Except for the few quotes above, the story is rehash – used news, as they say. We liked the “I get that for free” quote, but the Journal didn’t get the context. We checked, and Obama was referring to public concessions by Rep. Tom Cole and Senate Rs on the need to raise rates. So the White House didn’t have to trade anything for that.

 TOP TALKER – WSJ A1, “Google Labors To Build A Phone … ran into difficulties … using a bendable screen,” by Amir Efrati: “Engineers at Motorola [acquired by Google in May] are hard at work on a sophisticated [Android] handset—known internally as the ‘X phone’— … [for release next year, an] effort to provide more potent competition for Apple … Motorola wanted … better color saturation and the ability to take panoramic shots … But some … features were found to drain battery life … Motorola also ran into difficulties when it looked into using a bendable screen and materials such as ceramics that would allow the company to make the X Phone more stress resistant, use more colors and mold into different shapes.”

 SURE BETS FOR THE SUNDAY SHOWS – The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre is the cover pic of both N.Y.C. tabs: N.Y. Post wood, “GUN NUT! NRA loon in bizarre rant over Newtown” … N.Y. Daily News wood, “CRAZIEST MAN ON EARTH: Just 90 MINUTES after moment of silence for Newtown victims, vile NRA nut blames everyone and everything EXCEPT the guns.”

 --JOHN DICKERSON of Slate, “Two Debacles in 12 Hours: Why today was a very bad day to be Republican”: “The NRA’s top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre … was characteristically defiant, calling for security officers to be stationed at every school. He spoke with an edge, his voice straining … The night before, a committed band of Republicans defeated House Speaker John Boehner. … These two events—a defiant NRA and an incompetent leadership—cannot be the face of confrontation the GOP wants to show the public on high-profile issues. Tea Party activists and gun owners are a key part of the party base. But these public acts are out of sync with the moment and completely at odds with party's need to widen its membership. …

 “The message of both of these acts … is: We don’t care about the wider audience. … [I]t's not the message that its putative leaders want to send. Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan are all trying to send various messages of inclusion. … Holding more firmly to your views despite new circumstances can offer stability, but it also opens you up to looking remote, unconcerned, and out of touch. To those who might think you hail from another planet, it helps to speak to them in their language. That language requires a conversation, not an argument.” http://slate.me/VYeYkW

 TOP STORY – Boston Globe banner, “Kerry tapped to lead State Department: Jockeying begins now to succeed 5-term senator,” by Bryan Bender and Glen Johnson: “President Obama nominated Massachusetts Senator John Forbes Kerry as the next secretary of state Friday, turning to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of his earliest political allies to guide American diplomacy in an ‘uncertain world’ during the next four years. The selection of the 69-year-old Kerry … was heralded across the political divide as a wise choice of a fully tested player on the international stage who can dive into some of the world’s most challenging problems … If Kerry is confirmed, … Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick would name a temporary replacement to fill his seat and a special election would be held later next year to complete his term, which is up in 2014.

 “The nomination to replace Hillary Clinton is the capstone of a three-decade political career that began when Kerry, the son of a Foreign Service officer, returned from the Vietnam War a decorated veteran to become a leading voice of the antiwar movement. ‘In a sense, John’s entire life has prepared him for this role,’ Obama said during a joint appearance with Kerry, his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and Vice President Joe Biden in the Roosevelt Room … [Obama] noted that it was Kerry who invited him, as an Illinois state senator, to address the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. That speech catapulted Obama to national prominence.”

 --N.Y. Times A1, “Kerry, in Role of a Lifetime, Is Pick to Lead the State Dept.,” by Mark Landler: “Kerry has been a loyal supporter of the Obama administration, guiding an arms-reduction treaty with Russia to ratification in the Senate and playing diplomatic troubleshooter for the White House in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan. … In early 2008, Mr. Kerry endorsed [Obama] over Mrs. Clinton, and this fall he played the role of Mitt Romney in mock debates — sessions that by some accounts put the president’s teeth on edge. …

 “Although Mr. Kerry is not a global celebrity like Mrs. Clinton, his background as a presidential nominee and his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee have made him well known abroad, accustomed to meeting monarchs and presidents. In October 2009, he was viewed as instrumental in persuading President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to accept the need for a runoff election. Mr. Kerry spent 20 hours over five days with Mr. Karzai.” http://nyti.ms/12wkLVg

 --PRESIDENT OBAMA, in the Roosevelt Room: “As the son of a Foreign Service officer, he has a deep respect for the men and women of the State Department … John has played a central role in every major foreign policy debate for nearly 30 years. As we turn the page on a decade of war, he understands that we’ve got to harness all elements of American power and ensure that they’re working together -- diplomatic and development, economic and political, military and intelligence … John, I’m looking forward to working with you instead of debating you.”

 --“Israeli PM hails Kerry nomination” – AFP/Jerusalem: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday welcomed the nomination of Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as US secretary of state … I congratulate John Kerry on his nomination to the post of American secretary of state. Kerry, who has great experience, is a well-known defender of the security of Israel,’ he said in a statement issued by his office. … Netanyahu also said he greatly appreciated that six months ago, after his father died, Kerry visited him during the shiva.”

 ** A message from the American Hospital Association: Will Congress Jeopardize Patients' Access to Care? As it works to reduce the deficit, Congress should not cut funding to hospitals and hurt patient care. Oppose Hospital Cuts. Protect Patient Care. Visit www.aha.org/preparedtocare to learn more. **

 2016 WATCH – Alex Conant gets two photo credit in NYT print edition -- SportsSaturday lead, “Football, And It’s Not Political: When Senator Marco Rubio attends a Miami Dolphins game, … [t]he subject is the N.F.L., period,” by Mark Leibovich in Miami Gardens, Fla.: “Rubio, the rookie Republican senator from Florida, is standing on the sideline at Sun Life Stadium 30 minutes before a Dolphins game against the New England Patriots in early December. … ‘You want to meet Coach [Don] Shula?’ Rubio asks me. I demur, fearful of looking directly at the Supreme Being without sunglasses. (I am also a Patriots fan.) ‘Well, I’m going to say hi to Coach Shula,’ Rubio says with hushed reverence. … As a child, Rubio wore braces on his legs to correct a knee problem; he hated the braces, so his father would call home from work claiming to be Coach Shula and saying that Marco needed to wear them if he ever wanted to play for the Dolphins. … Rubio, 41, is legitimate, a serious fan who not only can name the Dolphins’ long snapper (John Denny) but can also tell you that an N.F.L. long-snapper must get the ball to the holder in seven-tenths of a second. …

 “[O]nly so much escape is possible for a politician in a packed football stadium, especially with a reporter along and, also, his two young sons, Dominick (5) and Anthony (7). Rubio coaches Anthony in youth football. We rode to the stadium from Rubio’s West Miami home in a rental car driven by the senator’s spokesman, Alex Conant. … [T]he former Florida Gator has not refrained at all from taunting Florida State fans via Twitter. ‘I was mocking them just last week,’ he says, boasting that one particular anti-F.S.U. posting — something about the fat lady singing — was ‘one of my most retweeted tweets ever.’ Rubio has an unusual familiarity with his own Twitter activity. After the Patriots signed the free-agent wide receiver Donte Stallworth on Dec. 4, Rubio mentioned to me that Stallworth followed him on Twitter. How did he know this? ‘Because he once retweeted something of mine,’ Rubio said. …

 “Which is his least favorite N.F.L. team? ‘Jets,’ he says without hesitation. [Sorry, Rhoades!] ‘That’s the team I hate to lose to the most. They could be 1-15, and if they beat the Dolphins, their fans get obnoxious.’ … It is worth noting that the Jets’ owner, Woody Johnson, is a major Republican donor. (It’s also worth noting that I later receive an e-mail from Conant, the spokesman, emphasizing that the senator and Johnson ‘have a good relationship.’) … Conant … inches the rental car through the parking lot, fans zigzagging in front of him, not all of them sober. … Conant succeeds, heroically, and is on the highway a few minutes later with Dominick now fast asleep in the back.” See Alex’s pics. http://nyti.ms/UZz3HO

 THE PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN HAWAII – Pool reports by NYT’s Jeremy Peters: “Potus arrived at Andrews via Marine One at promptly 7:30 p.m. local time. He, the first lady and their two daughters didn't linger long before boarding Air Force One, with the official temperature on your pooler's iPhone reading 39 degrees. Traveling with the president were Alyssa Mastromonaco, acting chief of staff, and Jay Carney, press secretary, and Bo the dog. We were taxiing on the runway at 7:35. …

 “Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam … Potus was wheels down in Honolulu at 12:06 a.m. local time, following a bumpy but very quiet 10-hour flight. No gaggling. … Potus quickly deplaned, having shed the leather jacket he was sporting in Washington for more climate-appropriate attire: a dress shirt, sleeves rolled up. At 12:26 a.m. we were on the move toward the vacation residence. … 12:54 a.m. Potus arrived at his vacation residence in Kailua, a quiet town on a crescent stretch of beach on the east end of Oahu. The bus carrying the press was not able to get close enough to the property to see it, or to see the Obamas. A light drizzle fell as the motorcade traveled around the eastern edge of Pearl Harbor, then up and over the mountains to Kailua. … We have a lid.”

 --THE V.P.’S WEEKEND: “The Vice President will be in Wilmington, Delaware. There are no public events scheduled.”

 BUSINESS BURST – “Wal-Mart Turns to Condé Nast for Beauty Magazine,” by Women’s Wear Daily’s Erik Maza: “Buried within Wal-Mart’s Web site … is a magazine called BeautyScoop. Thousands of stores also carry it, and it was mailed to millions of the store’s customers. … It has a model on the cover … Its own logo — the name in a large type underneath a smaller Wal-Mart tag. Though wafer-thin — it runs just 12 pages — and produced on glossy stock, it is as close as a store catalogue can come to a magazine. And there are editorial features. … Glamour, for instance, answered questions from its Twitter followers about ‘pretty girl problems,’ like thinning eyebrows. … The entire magazine was made by Condé, sources said. … This marriage of convenience takes the old-hat practice of custom publishing to a whole other, and more lucrative, level and advances publishers’ attempts at selling their marketing savvy. … The collaboration is secret. …

 “Custom publishing is not a new bag. … Time Inc. … publishes My Ford magazine. … [P]ublishers have also increasingly moved to offer big-scale marketers the creative services they would normally get from ad agencies. … The initial [Wal-Mart] plan called for five issues … with 500,000 copies in-store, and direct-mail run sent to 2.5 million Wal-Mart customers … The cost of the project is in the millions … The final product was made to Wal-Mart’s orders — nothing too ostentatious, none of Glamour’s sometimes suggestive headlines. More importantly, while it would borrow the aesthetic of Condé magazines — flashy typeface and attractive models — as well as light editorial features, like beauty advice and Q&As, the name Condé Nast appears nowhere … Though the fate of the magazine in 2013 is unclear, sources say the two companies are already working on another joint project.” http://wwd.us/TKdxI8

 --“Australian DJs could face prosecution for royal hoax,” by AFP’s Danny Kemp in London: “British prosecutors will decide whether to charge two Australian DJs after a nurse who took a hoax call to a hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine apparently killed herself, police said Saturday. Scotland Yard said officers had this week sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service over the prank earlier this month by presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian, from Sydney's 2Day FM radio station. Indian-born nurse Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found hanged in her lodgings at King Edward VII's hospital in central London, where Kate was being treated for acute morning sickness.”

 ENGAGED: Josh Gold, political director for New York's Hotel & Motel Trades Council, popped the question to Courtney Zaktzer on Tuesday night at the Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan. (hat tip: Ken Vogel)

 MILESTONE BIRTHDAY: Reid Phillip “Reido” Kellam, a junior at Penn State double-majoring in P.R./advertising and political science, rang in 21 with a beer at Martin's. His first, no doubt. Reid once summered at the Glover Park Group. (hat tip: Mom, Susan Kellam, and Dad, Dick Keil of Purple Strategies, plus Edgar, the pug)

 BIRTHDAYS: Piper Adams is 1 (bonnet tip: Adams Family Community Group) … Diane Sawyer is ageless … Sen.-elect Ted Cruz of Texas is 42 (10-gallon hat tip: Stephen Cox) … former House Speaker Jim Wright is 90 … Adam Verdugo, senior producer for "Meet the Press," celebrating by preparing for tomorrow’s show (hat tips: Betsy, Erika) … WaPo's Valerie Strauss ... Jim Wright ... Paul Wolfowitz is 69 (hat tips: Patrick Gavin)... Matt Manda (comms director for Rep. Kevin Yoder) turns the big 3-0, celebrating his birthday by scoping out the Easternshore sailing town Oxford, MD followed by a dinner at the Barlett Pear Inn (tip: Elise) … Rich Ward (h/t Stuart Siciliano) … Rachel Manfredi, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the American Enterprise Institute (h/t husband Stephen Manfredi) …. Chris Austin, legislative director for Rep. John Garamendi, will celebrate his birthday weekend with his girlfriend, Mary, a civilian employee at Walter Reed Bethesda, and friend Charles “Chuck” Galbraith, in New York City. He thanks his legislative team for covering for him if the House is in session. (h/t Matthew Kravitz) …. Steve Carlton is 68 … Steve Garvey is 64 (h/ts AP)

 BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): John P. Coale, who celebrated with a quiet dinner with Greta and a GREAT bottle of wine at home. (hat tip: Tammy)

 BIRTHDAYS TOMORROW: Chris Peacock , a Debate Commission spin-alley monitor, and former communications aide to Lloyd Bentsen, Donna Shalala, and Nancy Ann DeParle, is 52 … John Russell IV, Senior Managing Director at SNR Denton, is 38 (hat tip: his much better half) … MONDAY: Dorinda Moss, NRSC Finance Director (h/t Ben Ginsberg) … Jonathan Murphy, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress … WEDNESDAY: Jill Cooper Udall … Matthew Verghese, the Political/Communications Director of the Maryland Democratic Party, has his 26th birthday on Dec. 26 th (h/t Betsy Dudley) … DEC. 29: Andrew Malcolm, Rep. Greg Walden's press secretary (h/t Greg Meiselbach and Laura Reed) … DEC. 30: Lauren Claffey, press secretary for Sen. Saxby Chambliss (h/ts Bronwyn Lance Chester)

 THE SHOWS, from @MattMackowiak:

 -- NBC’s “Meet the Press”: NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre; Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); roundtable with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN), NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and NBC’s Chuck Todd

 -- ABC’s “This Week”: Former DEA administrator and NRA Director of the National School Shield Program former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR); the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s Sarah Brady; Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); roundtable with Mayor Cory Booker (D-Newark), Americans for Tax Reform president and NRA Board Member Grover Norquist, ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan and The Nation Magazine’s Katrina vanden Heuvel

 -- CBS’s “Face the Nation”: NRA president David Keene; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA); Sen.-designee Tim Scott (R-SC); actor/director and Eastern Congo Initiative founder Ben Affleck; roundtable with Major Garrett, Margaret Brennan and Mike Allen

 -- “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY); Saddleback Church founder and senior pastor Rick Warren; roundtable with The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, Daily Beast columnist Kirsten Powers, radio host Laura Ingraham and Fox News’ Juan Williams

 -- CNN’s “State of the Union” (9 a.m. and noon): Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) and Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH); Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT); former DEA administrator and NRA Director of the National School Shield Program former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR); roundtable with National Journal’s Ron Brownstein, TIME Magazine’s Michael Duffy and USA Today’s Susan Page

 -- CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: (SUN 10am ET / 1pm ET): Economic roundtable with The Economist’s Zanny Minton Beddoes, Thomson Reuters’ Chrystia Freeland, former Bush administration chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and Columbia University’s Glenn Hubbard and former Obama administration OMB director Peter Orszag; Washington Post columnist and Legatum Institute’s Anne Applebaum; author and former Obama administration “car czar” and Willett Advisors, LLC chairman Steven Rattner (“Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry”)

 -- C-SPAN: “The Communicators” (SAT 6:30pm ET): Author and Wired Magazine’s Andrew Blum (“Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet”) … “Newsmakers” (SUN 10am ET / 6pm ET): Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), questioned by POLITICO’s Tim Mak and Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin … “Q&A” (SUN 8pm ET / 11pm ET): 90 minute interview with c-author Paul Reid, who co-authored with William Manchester, the third and final volume of the historical trilogy, “The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965)

 -- NBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show”: Roundtable with BBC’s Katty Kay, TIME magazine’s Michael Duffy, The New York Times’ Helene Cooper and ABC News’ Sam Donaldson

 --ABC7’s “Inside Washington”: (SAT 7pm ET on NewsChannel 8 / SUN 9am ET on ABC7 WJLA): Roundtable with Washington Post columnist Colbert King; NPR’s Nina Totenberg and syndicated columnists Mark Shields and Charles Krauthammer

 -- Bloomberg’s “Political Capital” with Al Hunt (SUN 8am ET / 1pm ET): Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX)

 -- Bloomberg’s “Capitol Gains” (Bloomberg TV SUN 12pm ET / 5pm ET): Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)

 -- PBS’s “To the Contrary”: Roundtable with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Center for Equal Opportunity’s Linda Chavez, Democratic commentator Jennifer Rajkumar and the Heritage Foundation’s Genevieve Wood

 -- TV One’s “Washington Watch with Roland Martin”: (SUN 9am ET): Psychologist Dr. Jeffery Gardere; National Medical Association president and Meharry Medical College (Nashville, TN) forensic psychiatrist Dr. Rahn Bailey; Drexel University adolescent psychotherapist Dr. Chuck Williams; ProPublica’s Dafna Linzer; writer and image activist Michaela Angela Davis; journalist / commentator panel with The Bernard Center for Women’s Michelle Bernard, JC Watts Companies co-founder and CEO Elroy Sailor, The Advancement Project’s Leila McDowell and Sirius/XM Radio’s Joe Madison

 --SiriusXM's “Polioptics” with Josh King and Adam Belmar (SUN noon ET / 6 pm ET): Historian Michael Beschloss and Mark Updegrove, executive director of the LBJ Presidential Library, on a $10 million renovation. On SiriusXM's POTUS Ch. 124; also available for download on iTunes and at http://www.polioptics.com.

 ** A message from the American Hospital Association: Will Congress Jeopardize Patients' Access to Care? America's hospitals are always open, serving our communities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Even as hospitals face new challenges to provide high-quality care to everyone who needs it, Congress is debating additional cuts to hospital funding which would cost jobs and hurt access to care. Because hospitals care for everyone who comes to the ER, we provide billions in uncompensated care, including $39.3 billion in 2010. During the last decade, uncompensated care rose 82%. Now Congress could further cut hospital funding to reduce the deficit. These cuts will have serious implications for our patients, and could jeopardize access to quality health care. Oppose Hospital Cuts. Protect Patient Care.

 Visit www.aha.org/preparedtocare to learn more. **

 Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc

 Jake Sherman @JakeSherman

 Daniel Lippman @dlippman |||||
What is a summary?

– The Wall Street Journal has what it bills as a "behind scenes" look at how the fiscal cliff talks went sour this week—on Monday, to be precise—and a few passages stand out to suggest relations between the president and House Republicans may have actually gotten worse since the election: Boehner to Obama: "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?' Obama to Boehner: "You get nothing. I get that for free." At another point, Boehner told the president he wanted a deal similar to the one he rejected during their debt ceiling talks of 2011. "You missed your opportunity on that," replied the president. Eventually, an "irritated" Boehner decided to move ahead with his Plan B even while keeping the broader deal on the table. It was a decision that "incensed" the president. (Boehner eventually had to call off the vote anyway.) Read the full Journal story here. At Politico, Mike Allen says it's mostly a "rehash" of old news. But Ezra Klein at the Washington Post thinks the "I get that for free" exchange is "the central fact of negotiations for the Democrats and the central problem for the Republicans." Read his full explanation here of why Democrats think the $800 billion figure isn't what it seems. The talks, meanwhile, remain in limbo until after Christmas, when the best hope will be that the two sides can agree on a scaled-down, temporary plan.


Summarize this article:

A 19-year-old from Michigan who was vacationing in the Bahamas was killed when a gigantic wave swept him away as he was hiking. The tragedy came shortly after he asked his girlfriend’s family for permission to marry her.

 Jonathan Brussow met his girlfriend, Athena Williams, at a summer party just after they finished the eighth grade. The two bonded the next year as they sat next to each other on the school bus after Brussow moved down the street from Williams. It was during those rides that their relationship blossomed.

 “The minute he walked down to the bus, I just knew. I was so excited that Jonathan Brussow was on my bus,” Williams, 20, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, tells PEOPLE. “He later told me that he saw me, and he had butterflies in his stomach and didn’t know how he could talk to me without throwing up!”

 As the couple readied to start their lives as young adults, Brussow felt the time was right to ask for his longtime girlfriend’s hand in marriage. But first, the young man wanted to ask Williams’ family for permission. While the couple was on vacation on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas with Williams’ family, Brussow did just that, as he secretly sat them down for a talk when Williams wasn’t around. Saying yes to him, Williams says, was always a given.

 Jonathan Brussow and Athena Williams Athena Williams

 “Me and Jonathan, we knew we were going to get married. We knew we were still young, but—it sounds so cheesy—but we’ve just been so much in love. We didn’t spend a minute apart from each other unless we had to,” she says of Brussow, who was an adventurous “country boy” who loved dirt biking and hunting. “We were creating such a beautiful life together. I knew he wanted to propose to me but I didn’t know he was asking my parents.”

 Just before dawn on March 5, Brussow woke Williams up and told her he was “going to be right back,” and left with Williams’ brother, Eric, for a hike up a nearby cliff to talk with him about the upcoming proposal. But as the hours passed with no sign of Brussow and her brother, Williams began to worry.

 “The sun was coming up and I was looking out my window trying to look for him, waiting for him to come back and come lay down or something,” she recalls. “He didn’t come back.”

 As the two men sat at the highest point of the cliff—which Williams says was at least 70 feet high—a freak wave came up and swept the two of them into the water below, leaving them to fight for their survival. Though Eric was badly injured, he managed to pull himself from the water by grabbing on to a rock.

 Jonathan Brussow GoFundMe

 With Brussow unable to return to shore, Eric ran for help. After borrowing a phone from a local woman, he messaged his sister and told her he was at a hospital. It wouldn’t be until a short time later that Williams found out Brussow wasn’t with him.

 “After finding out that Eric was up on the cliffs, I couldn’t help but to scream and I instantly thought the worst,” she says. “That’s when we started calling everybody, we called every number possible.”

 In the coming hours, Brussow’s father flew to the island as Williams and her family called the U.S. Embassy, Coast Guard, Ministry of Tourism and anyone else that could assist in the search. With time ticking and a storm adding difficulties to their efforts, local Bahamians rallied together, bringing the family water and food and never wanting money in return. They spent many hours searching with them, something which Williams says she will be forever grateful.

 Jonathan Brussow and Athena Williams Athena Williams

 “We never stopped searching, we had so much hope,” she says. “If there was one person who could get out of this situation, it’s Jonathan Brussow, and anyone would tell you that.”

 On March 9—four days after the incident—a search party recovered Brussow’s body, hundreds of yards from where the giant wave hit.

 “It’s been a very tragic experience, but I’ve come to the conclusion that since this had to happen to us, I’m glad that it happened on this island,” Williams, who is still on the island but is returning to the states on Wednesday, says. “We wouldn’t have been able to come to peace with this situation to understand it, to get through it, without the people here. I couldn’t be more thankful.”

 Athena Williams

 Though the family initially set up a GoFundMe to raise award money for anyone who found Brussow alive, they have now shifted the donation page’s mission. Now they hope to help cover the expenses for Brussow’s family to transport him back to Michigan and reimburse those who spent money to help in the search.

 They’d also like to use the donations to purchase warning signs and safety gear that will be available near the island’s Glass Window Bridge—where the wave hit. This part of the initiative is being spearheaded by Eric in the hopes if someone is in need of help, equipment will be readily available. The island’s hospital is also in need of a mammogram machine, and this, too, is something they hope to provide.

 Jonathan Brussow and Athena Williams Athena Williams

 Helping out the locals in a meaningful and lasting way will be a great way to honor the love of her life, Williams says.

 “I would give anything to be able to have him here and be able to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him. It would have been beautiful, it would have been a beautiful life we would have made together,” she says. “We have been such great friends over the last six years together. I wish we had more time.” |||||

 ROCKFORD, MI -- The family of a missing 19-year-old man washed into the sea Monday says his body has been recovered in the Bahamas.

 Family members were holding out hope as late as Friday morning that Jonathan Brussow, a 2016 Rockford High School graduate, would somehow be found alive.

 But on Saturday, March 10, Brussow's father confirmed that his son's remains had been recovered from atop a cliff where surging waves created an eight-foot deep pond during a storm earlier this week.

 Brad Brussow said that local authorities and his own search party had been through that same area several times since his son went missing Monday, March 5 near the Glass Window Bridge. They did not find anything.

 The pond began to dry up later in the week and the body was discovered Friday, March 9 in the depression area, Brad Brussow said.

 Jonathan Brussow was on vacation in the Bahamas, on the island of Eleuthera, when he and a friend were both knocked off their feet by a rogue wave while near the bridge.

 Father of Rockford man missing in Bahamas still hopeful, funding effort started

 Brussow was swept into the sea and the other person managed to cling to a rock and pull himself to safety.

 Brad Brussow, who flew to the Bahamas to help search, said it's believed his son was washed ashore not long after he went into the sea. The sea surge crashing into the cliff may have been nearly 100 feet tall, he said.

 Jonathan Brussow's family released a statement on Saturday.

 In the statement, they made an analogy between a straight-line wind storm that happened on the day of Jonathan Brussow's birth on May 31, 1998 and the March 5 storm in Eleuthera that swept him into the sea.

 "God brought Jonathan in with a storm and took him back in a storm," according to the statement.

 When he was born, he was dubbed "storm trooper" in an article in the Rockford Squire about the straight-line wind storm and the family's adventure getting to the hospital through debris.

 "As a family, he was known as Jonathan "Stormy" Brussow," the family's statement said. "He named his dog Stormy. For those that knew him, they knew he lived his life with a storm of passion and a smile that would light up a room."

 Family members also offered thanks to everyone who gave prayers and support since Monday. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video

 HARBOUR ISLAND, Bahamas-- After a young Rockford man's body was found in the Bahamas, his girlfriend is encouraging the community to celebrate his life and sharing his last words with FOX 17.

 Athena Williams, 20, met Jonathan Brussow, 19, at a bonfire during the summer after the two finished eighth grade. When ninth grade started, they rode the same school bus. Williams says one morning, Brussow sat in the seat next to her and from there, it was young love.

 Brussow had been with Williams and her family on vacation to the Bahamas. Williams says the night before Brussow went missing, he sat down with her family after she went to bed to ask them a question that would change their lives.

 He wanted their permission to marry her.

 “When we started dating he always told me, he said, ‘Since the first time I saw you, I knew I was gonna marry you,'" Williams tells FOX 17. “We had everything planned out already. He had our whole wedding planned out, too and we weren’t even engaged or anything.”

 Before the sun rose that next morning, Brussow went with Williams' brother, Erik on a hike up a tall cliff nearby.

 “When they were there, Jonathan also asked Erik if it was okay if he could marry me," Williams says. "I know that and the one thing Erik did tell me that Jonathan said was, ‘Come have a seat with me, buddy,' and then it just kind of happened, I guess.”

 A huge wave swept the two young men into the water. Erik was able to grab onto a rock and get himself to shore. He had broken ribs and was cut badly but still, he ran a mile to get help for Jonathan before being taken to the hospital.

 At 11 a.m., Williams got a message that Brussow wasn't with Erik.

 “That’s pretty much when we knew that Jonathan was gone but we did not give up hope," Williams says. "We called every number possible. We called the embassy, the Nassau Coast Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, the local police enforcement. We did not stop making calls.”

 Brussow's parents immediately flew to the island. Williams tells FOX 17 that with help from locals, they searched for Brussow for days. She credits the Bahamians for their ability to continue the search.

 There was a tropical storm that hit the island, making their search difficult. Still, she persisted.

 “It’s Jonathan. Jonathan Brussow. If there’s anybody who could get out of a situation like this, it’s Jonathan," Williams says. “But the odds were absolutely against him. There was just no way he could have made it.”

 Days later, Brussow's body was found. Though her boyfriend is gone, Williams says his memory will live on.

 “He absolutely loved his life. He had no regrets. He had no complaints," Williams says. “I’ve never, ever experienced or seen anybody love somebody so genuinely like he actually loved me. It just blows me away, the person he was. The person he still is.”

 She says her family is now focusing on returning the help that was given to them by local Bahamians. The Williams and Brussow families are raising money to install a safety device on the Glass Window Bridge, near where Brussow entered the water. Williams says this effort is especially important to Erik.

 Williams says they also hope to help the local hospital get new equipment, like a much needed mammogram machine.

 If you'd like to contribute to the families' GoFundMe page, click here. |||||

– "God brought Jonathan in with a storm and took him back in a storm." That's how the family of 19-year-old Jonathan Brussow describe his death earlier this month in the Bahamas, just after he'd asked the family of his girlfriend for permission to marry her. Athena Williams tells People and FOX 17 that the Michigan man she met at a party in middle school was vacationing on the island of Eleuthera with her and her family when, on March 4, he secretly asked her family if he could marry her. Early the next day, Brussow and Williams' brother went for a hike, and as they were resting on a cliff, a wave came out of nowhere and swept the two men into the water below. Williams' brother was badly hurt but managed to get to shore, where he ran for help. Brussow, however, was nowhere to be found, and his family flew out from the US to help Williams, her family, and the locals search for him. On March 9, an 8-foot-deep depression filled with water near where the men were swept away dried up, and Brussow's body was found, MLive.com reports. The $21,000 raised on GoFundMe to help in the search for Brussow—described as the "most beloved kid" on his high school swim team before he graduated in 2016, per WZZM—will now be put toward bringing his body home, offering funds to those who helped look for him, and putting warning signs and safety gear near where the wave took his life. In a statement, his family notes how Brussow had been born in a wild storm on May 31, 1998, and that "those that knew him well knew he lived his life with a storm of passion." As for Williams, she tells People: "I would give anything to be able to have him here and be able to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him. … I wish we had more time." (A rogue wave killed twin sisters in Cabo.)


– Jay Leno has long said he lives off his standup money and takes the millions he gets paid for hosting the Tonight Show and sticks it right in the bank. So the news that Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood broke last night might not sting quite as much for him: One source tells her that Leno took a "tremendous" pay cut, and the LA Times confirms it was indeed "significant." The numbers require some guesswork, but the LAT thinks he went from somewhere between $25 million and $30 million down to about $20 million. Finke's numbers are higher. According to both accounts, Leno volunteered to take the cuts to save jobs, though at least 20 people got layoffs. Why the downsizing? Finke says it's not because of concerns about ratings or ad revenue, but because parent company Comcast is demanding cuts all around. She says the show is still a "cash cow." The LAT, meanwhile, says Leno's prime-time budget never got shaved when he moved back to later hours.

Expand this summary.

"Tonight Show" host Jay Leno is taking a significant reduction in pay and roughly two dozen staffers are being let go as part of a major budget restructuring at the late-night talk show.

 Although "The Tonight Show" remains the top-rated late-night program, from a financial standpoint it is only break-even, according to a person familiar with the economics of the show. One reason for that is that the production budget of the show was not reduced when Leno moved back to late night after his ill-fated stint in prime time during the 2009-10 television season.

 Leno's current salary is between $25 million and $30 million and he volunteered to take a cut if it would save some jobs. A person close to the network thought Leno's new salary is likely around $20 million. Bruce Bobbins, one of Leno's spokesmen, declined to comment.

 [Updated at 10:49 a.m., Aug. 18: In a statement later Bobbins said, "Jay's foremost concern is for the wonderful people who work for 'The Tonight Show.' He did what was necessary to ensure their well-being."]

 While an NBC spokeswoman declined to comment on the situation, the job losses are said to be between 20 and 25 people and many other senior staffers also agreed to pay cuts.

 The weekly budget for Leno's prime time show was approximately $2.3 million and it stayed there when he returned to late night and Conan O'Brien was sent packing. The budget now will be closer to $1.7 million, which is in the range of what it was during Leno's previous late-night stint.

 Leno is not the first late-night host to agree to a salary reduction. In 2009, CBS restructured David Letterman's deal and reduced his salary and the budget of the show.

 Whether NBC will look to other areas to make additional cuts is yet to be determined. Earlier this year, the network trimmed its marketing and promotions staff.

 News of the cuts were first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

 ALSO:

 Movie review: 'Cosmopolis'

 Moviegoers still wary of theaters after Aurora shootings

 Robert Pattinson tries to separate professional and personal lives ||||| Related: Tonight Show Cuts Latest In Wave Of NBC Layoffs & Cost Trims Imposed By Comcast

 SATURDAY UPDATE: Jay Leno’s spokesman has now issued this statement: ”Jay’s foremost concern is for the wonderful people who work for The Tonight Show. He did what was necessary to ensure their well-being.”

 BREAKING… EXCLUSIVE… FRIDAY 8:30 PM: NBC insiders tell me The Tonight Show went through ”downsizing” today and that 20 staffers lost their jobs. Others tell me the number is more like 25, and producers were forced to take pay cuts or lose their jobs. I’ve also learned that Jay Leno took what is being described as a “tremendous” pay cut to “save as many people’s jobs as he could”. Leno’s Tonight Show is consistently the #1 late night talk show in both households and demographics, except for some anomalies when Leno does get beaten. And that’s despite the fact that the network’s primetime ratings have been dismal for many years or that Leno himself was harshly criticized by the media for that January 2010 standoff with Conan O’Brien. Even so, The Tonight Show has been and still is a cash cow for NBC. So what happened to merit the downsizing? “I don’t think ad sales are off. I just think the people who bought this company, Comcast, wants to go through everything at NBC and get their money back,” an NBC insider tells me. ”It’s hard to go through those kinds of cuts. It’s more a network issue than a late-night issue. And I would say that Jay doesn’t get credit for digging out of a gigantic hole every single night. He’s a very valuable guy to NBC and someday everyone will understand that. He does a great job.”

 Related: Gabby Douglas & Michelle Obama Give ‘Tonight Show’ A Bump

 The downsizing also comes just 5 days after First Lady Michelle Obama appeared as a guest for the third time on The Tonight Show: high unemployment, job creation, and taxing the rich vs the poor all are issues in the 2012 president campaign. Leno has said publicly that he’s able to bank his entire Tonight Show salary and live on the hefty fees he makes from his hectic personal appearance schedule. Leno’s new salary is reportedly $27M-$30 million a year. He reportedly brings home another $15M-$20M a year from his other gigs.

 Leno replaced Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show in 1992 after having been a regular substitute host since 1987. He “officially” ended hosting of The Tonight Show in 2009 when Conan O’Brien started on June 1st. Leno was going to be paid for all of 2009 by NBC even though he was only working six months of it. When his ratings dipped, O’Brien was asked to move The Tonight Show‘s time slot later to make room for Leno’s return at 11:30 PM. O’Brien refused. NBC gave Conan a $40M payoff (including salaries for his staff) to leave The Tonight Show hosting job which Leno resumed in 2010.

 Related: Gabby Douglas & Michelle Obama Give ‘Tonight Show’ A Bump

 Jay Leno Celebrates 20th Anniversary Hosting ‘The Tonight Show’

 Jimmy Kimmel Bests Leno & Letterman

 Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here. |||||


Article:
Recently leaked communication surveillance programs have helped thwart more than 50 “potential terrorist events” around the world since the Sept. 11 attacks, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander said Tuesday.

 Alexander said at least 10 of the attacks were set to take place in the United States, suggesting that most of the terrorism disrupted by the program had been set to occur abroad.

 Text Size -

 +

 reset Obama defends NSA surveillance

 The NSA also disclosed that counterterrorism officials targeted fewer than 300 phone numbers or other “identifiers” last year in the massive call-tracking database secretly assembled by the U.S. government.

 (PHOTOS: Pols, pundits weigh in on NSA report)

 Alexander said the programs were subject to “extraordinary oversight.”

 ”This isn’t some rogue operation that a group of guys up at NSA are running,” the spy agency’s chief added.

 The data on use of the call-tracking data came in a fact sheet released to reporters in connection with a public House Intelligence Committee hearing exploring the recently leaked telephone data mining program and another surveillance effort focused on Web traffic generated by foreigners.

 (POLITICO Junkies: NSA leaks cause flood of political problems)

 Alexander said 90 percent of the potential terrorist incidents were disrupted by the Web traffic program known as PRISM. He was less clear about how many incidents the call-tracking effort had helped to avert.

 Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce said the Web traffic program had contributed to arrests averting a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange that resulted in criminal charges in 2008.

 Joyce also indicated that the PRISM program was essential to disrupting a plot to bomb the New York City subways in 2009. “Without the [Section] 702 tool, we would not have identified Najibullah Zazi,” Joyce said.

 However, President Barack Obama acknowledged in an interview aired Monday that it is impossible to know whether the subway plot might have been foiled by other methods.

 ”We might have caught him some other way. We might have disrupted it because a New York cop saw he was suspicious. Maybe he turned out to be incompetent and the bomb didn’t go off. But at the margins we are increasing our chances of preventing a catastrophe like that through these programs,” Obama told Charlie Rose on PBS.

 At the hearing, Alexander detailed the scope and safeguards of the programs, while Deputy Attorney General James Cole laid out the legal basis for the surveillance.

 “This is not a program that’s off the books, that’s been hidden away,” Cole said of the call-tracking program, which was classified “top secret” prior to recent leaks. He noted that the Patriot Act provision found to authorize it has been twice reauthorized by Congress.

 “All of us in the national security [community] are constantly trying to balance protecting public safety with protecting people’s civil liberties,” Cole said.

 NSA Deputy Director Chris Inglis said a very limited number of individuals are authorized to access the call-tracking database. ||||| 3 years ago

 (CNN) - In a hearing Tuesday with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the director of the National Security Agency, Keith Alexander, said that since 9/11, there have been more than 50 terror plots thwarted with the help of NSA surveillance programs.

 Four of those incidents were detailed at the hearing, including thwarted plots to bomb the New York subway system and the New York Stock Exchange by linking known suspects in Pakistan and Yemen to contacts in the United States.

 NSA officials are set to disclose information about the other cases in a private session with lawmakers on Wednesday.

 Still, there is a debate within the intelligence community about what can be revealed to prove these programs work versus what should stay classified for fear of burning sources and methods.

 Check back here for updates from the hearing.

 1:06 p.m. ET –– House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, wrapped up the hearing.

 "I know this has been difficult to come and talk about very sensitive things in a public way. In order to preserve your good work and the work on behalf of all the patriots working to defend America, I still believe it was important to have a meeting where at least in some way discuss and reassure the level and oversight and redundancy of oversight on a program that we all recognize needed extra care and attention and lots of sets of eyes. I hope today in this hearing we were able to do that."

 12: 40 p.m ET -

 Rep. Rooney: "What's next for Mr. Snowden?" FBI deputy director: "Justice." #NSAhearing — Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) June 18, 2013

 12:35 p.m. ET - Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, asks how damaging the leaks are.

 "I think it was irreversible and significant damage to this nation," Alexander said.

 "Has this helped America’s enemies?" Bachmann asked.

 "I believe it has and I believe it will hurt us and our allies," he said.

 12:27 p.m. ET - Rep. Jim Himes, D-Connecticut, asked how many of those 50 episodes would have been thwarted without the use of phone records. "How essential–not just contributing to–but how essential are these authorities to stop terrorist attacks?"

 Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first reported the leaks, asked a similar question on Twitter Tuesday morning.

 When officials claim that "Bulk Surveillance Program X" stopped Terror plots, must ask: could you have stopped it with narrower program? — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 18, 2013

 Responding to Himes, Alexander said the surveillance programs are vital to preventing terrorism.

 "Going back to 9/11, we didn't have the ability to connect the dots. This adds one more capability to help us do that," Alexander said in response. "What we're doing here, with the civil liberties and privacy oversight, does help connect the dots."

 Alexander said 90% of the more than 50 plots were prevented in part because of the online surveillance–not phone records collection–of suspects overseas. "In 50%, I believe they were critical," he said. A little more than 10 of the 50 had a domestic nexus and were thus targeted using phone records.

 Sean Joyce, deputy director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, also jumped in with a response to Himes.

 "I think you ask an almost impossible question to say how important each dot was. What I can tell you is post 9/11, I don't recognize the FBI I came into 26 years ago. Our mission is to stop terrorism, to prevent it, not after the fact, to prevent it before it happens in the United States. I can tell you every tool is essential and vital," Joyce said. "You ask: How can you put the value on an American life? And I can tell you it's priceless."

 12:20 p.m. ET - Robert S. Litt, general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said NSA leaker Edward Snowden "wasn't nearly as familiar with these programs as he's portrayed himself to be."

 "This is what happens when somebody who sees a tiny corner of things thinks it gives him inside (understanding) into the whole program," he said.

 12:01 p.m. ET - Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California, brought up other controversies plaguing the Obama administration–the IRS scandal, "Fast and Furious," Justice Department leak investigations, and the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi–and asked NSA officials to offer assurance that the agency is not leaking information itself.

 Responding, Alexander said all the information the NSA disseminates is "100% auditable" and they have "not seen one of our analysts willfully do something wrong." The only mistakes he has seen are "honest mistakes," listing a typo as an example.

 Nunes further pressed officials, asking them to explain the seriousness of the leaks.

 Sean Joyce, deputy director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, said they're conducting a "criminal investigation" and repeatedly described the leaks as "egregious."

 "We are revealing in front of you today methods and techniques. I have told you, the examples I gave you how important they have been. The first core al Qaeda plot to attack the United States post 9-11 we used one of these programs. Another plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange we used these programs. And now here we are talking about this in front of the world. So I think those leaks affect us," he said.

 New CNN/ORC Poll: A slight majority of those questioned in the poll disapprove of the actions of the man who leaked sensitive information about the NSA program. And a similar amount say Edward Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong, should be brought back to the U.S. and prosecuted

 Snowden: Obama expanded program

 11:36 a.m. ET - Reached by CNNMoney, the New York Stock Exchange declined to comment on the thwarted bomb plot.

 Yahoo: What gov. wanted from us

 11:35 a.m. ET - Asked if they plan to release the court opinions on NSA requests for phone and Internet intelligence gathering, Robert S. Litt, general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said they are looking into that.

 11:17 a.m ET - Elaborating further on the disrupted terrorist attacks, Sean Joyce, deputy director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, said federal agencies used Internet surveillance–known as PRISM or Section 702 of the Patriot Act–to identify an extremist who was communicating with an individual in Kansas City. They were in the "very early stages" of plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, he said.

 Asked if their intention to bomb the NYSE was "serious," Joyce said, "The jury considered it serious since (the suspects) were all convicted."

 In another instance, Joyce said they used phone records–Section 215–to identify an individual in San Diego who had "indirect contact" and who was providing financial support to an extremist outside of the United States.

 11:13 a.m ET - Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, ranking member on House Intelligence Committee, asked Alexander if he feels like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is a rubber stamp in the sense that it approves all requests from the NSA to pursue investigations.

 Alexander said he does not think the court acts in such a manner and praised the the federal judges on the court as "superb," adding that they "go back and forth to make sure we do this exactly right."

 11:12 a.m. ET - New CNN/ORC Poll: Just over six in ten Americans say they believe that government is so large and powerful that it threatens the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans.

 Obama: I'm no Dick Cheney

 11:10 a.m. ET - House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers asks if the NSA has the ability to "flip a switch" and listen to Americans' phone calls or read emails

 Alexander said they do not have the authority or technology to do that.

 11:04 a.m. ET - Deputy Attorney General James Cole said that because of the leaks, the government runs the risk of losing its capability to operate the collection programs. He did not say why but said they won't know for several months how the leaks affected the agency's surveillance abilities.

 10:57 a.m. ET - Alexander said the NSA does not unilaterally collect information from Internet companies under Section 702. The companies are compelled to provide that information by law, he said.

 Facebook, Microsoft disclose information on user data requests

 10:55 a.m. ET - NSA official says phone record data collected under Section 215 must be destroyed five years after acquired.

 10:45 a.m. ET - Sean Joyce, deputy director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the surveillance programs–specifically the program that gathers intelligence from Internet companies–helped stop a plot to bomb the office of the Danish newspaper that came under heat for publishing a cartoon of Mohammed in 2006.

 In the United States, the program also helped them thwart a plan to bomb the New York City subway system and a plan to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, he said.

 Read the full accounts from Joyce below.

 New York City subway: "In the fall of 2009, NSA using 702 authority intercepted an email from a terrorist located in Pakistan. That individual was talking with an individual located inside the United States talking about perfecting a recipe for explosives. Through legal process that individual was identified as Najibullah Zazi. He was located in Denver, Colorado. The FBI followed him to NYC. Later we executed search warrants with the NY joint terrorism task force and NYPD and found bomb making components in backpacks. Zazi later confessed to a plot to bomb the NY subway system with backpacks. Also working with FISA business records the NSA was able to provide a previously unknown number of one of the co-conspirators Adis Medunjanin. This was the first core al Qaeda plot since 9-11 directed from Pakistan."

 New York Stock Exchange: "NSA utilizing 702 authority was monitoring a known extremist in Yemen. This individual was in contact with an individual in the United States named Khalid Ouazzani. Ouazzani and other individuals that we identified through a FISA that the FBI applied for through the FISC, were able to detect a nascent plotting to bomb the NYSE. Ouazzani had been providing information and support to this plot. The FBI disrupted and arrested these individuals."

 Danish newspaper: "David Headley, a U.S citizen living in Chicago. The FBI received intelligence regarding his possible involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks responsible for the killing of over 160 people. Also, NSA through 702 coverage of an al Qaeda affiliated terrorist, found that Headley was working on a plot to bomb a Danish newspaper office that had published the cartoon depictions prophet Muhammad. In fact, Headley later confessed to personally conducting surveillance of the Danish newspaper office. He and his co-conspirators were convicted of this plot."

 FBI probe: "Lastly, the FBI had opened an investigation shortly after 9-11. We did not have enough information nor did we find links to terrorism so we shortly thereafter closed the investigation. However, the NSA using the business record FISA, tipped us off that this individual had indirect contacts with a known terrorist overseas. We were able to reopen this investigation, identify additional individuals through the legal process and were able to disrupt this terrorist activity."

 10:40 a.m. ET - For Section 702 of the Patriot Act, which permits the collection and surveillance of information from Internet companies, Cole said only those living outside of the United States can be targeted.

 10:30 a.m .ET - Cole said that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to Section 215, the part of the Patriot Act that permits the collection of phone records.

 He said people should not expect privacy on such metadata, which includes the phone numbers, the time at which phone conversations took place and the duration of those calls.

 10:25 a.m. ET - Deputy Attorney General James Cole listed some of the criteria for an NSA analyst to access phone conversations. As part of the oversight process, the NSA must get permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

 While requesting permission, they must prove that person they want to investigate is involved with some sort of terrorist organization. To prove affiliation, the NSA must have independent evidence aside from personal writings, statements, etc, from the person they want to investigate that the individual is linked to an organization.

 "You have to have additional evidence beyond that that indicates there is reasonable suspicion," he said.

 Read more: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said Sunday that the NSA was "not listening to" Americans' phone calls.

 10:22 a.m. ET - Alexander said they will bring classified documents to Capitol Hill Wednesday that detail all 50 cases in which the NSA programs helped prevent a terror plot. As reported already on CNN, he will present two of those publicly Tuesday.

 However, they will not publicly release all of the cases, saying that would give away the NSA's secrets in how it tracks suspected terrorists.

 "Too much is at risk for us and our allies," he said.

 Alexander described the programs as "critical" for the government's counterterrorism efforts. If they had the phone surveillance program–known as Section 215 under the Patriot Act–before the September 11, 2001 attacks, he argued, they may have been able to track phone conversations between one of the hijackers living in San Francisco and a co-conspirator in Yemen.

 10:20 a.m. ET - "In recent years these programs, together with other intelligence, have protected the U.S. and our allies from terrorist threats across the globe to include helping prevent the potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9-11," Alexander said.

 10:19 a.m. ET - In his opening statements, Alexander said the leaked information about the phone records and Internet data sparked "considerable debate" in recent days, but the debate has been fueld by "incomplete and inaccurate information."

 "Today we will provide additional detail and context on these programs to help inform that debate," he said.

 10:16 a.m. ET - New CNN/ORC Poll: Americans are split on the controversial National Security Agency anti-terrorism program to record metadata on U.S. phone calls, but they support the NSA program that targets records of internet usage by people in other countries.

 10:08 a.m. ET - House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, made his opening remarks.

 "I look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses about the extensive protections and oversight in place for these programs. General Alexander, we look forward to hearing what you’re able to discuss in an open forum about how the data that you obtain from providers under the Business Records provision is used; and Deputy Attorney General Cole, we look forward to hearing more about the legal authorities themselves, and the state of the law on what privacy protections Americans’ have in business records," he said, according to his prepared remarks.

 "General Alexander, you and I have talked over the past week about the need to be able to publicly elaborate on the success stories these authorities have contributed to without jeopardizing ongoing operations," he added. "I place the utmost value in protecting sources and methods, but I also recognize that when we are forced into the position of having to publicly discuss intelligence programs due to irresponsible, criminal behavior that we also have to carefully balance the need for secrecy with educating the public." |||||Summary:

– The NSA's controversial spying activities have prevented more than 50 terror attacks since 9/11, the agency's director told the House Intelligence Committee today, including attempted bombings of the New York Stock Exchange and, as previously disclosed, the New York City Subway. Gen. Keith Alexander said he'd go over all 50 cases with Congress, but wouldn't release the information to the public because it would give away NSA secrets. More from the hearing, courtesy of Politico and CNN's liveblog. Alexander said 90% of those cases were disrupted by the PRISM web spying program. The NSA said that while it has assembled a massive database of call tracking information, it has targeted fewer than 300 numbers or other "identifiers" within it. Deputy Attorney General James Cole stressed that the NSA must get permission from the secret FISA court to access phone data, and must have evidence linking their target to a terrorist organization. "This is not a program that's off the books that's been hidden away," Cole said. But Cole also said that the Fourth Amendment didn't apply to phone records, and that people shouldn't expect privacy for them. NSA Deputy Director Chris Inglis said that just 22 people at the NSA are authorized to query the phone database. Alexander said the NSA has neither the legal authority nor technical ability to "flip a switch" and listen to a phone conversation. The NSA brass wasn't exactly facing an inquisition. Committee Chairman Mike Rogers painted the NSA as a victim of "a constant public drumbeat" accusing it of a "laundry list of nefarious things … all of them wrong." He said public trust was waning thanks to "inaccuracies, half-truths, and outright lies."


Article:

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Blossom Ball

 At 11 a.m. ET today the beloved hip-hop group De La Soul will make its entire catalog available for free download on its website for a 25-hour window, to close at noon Saturday.* For Pos, Dave, and Maseo this giveaway celebrates the upcoming 25th anniversary of their legendary 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising; for the rest of us it’s just the best Valentine’s gift we’ll probably ever receive. In commemoration of this event here are 10 holiday-appropriate (and chronologically-ordered) De La tracks to bump this V-Day, be it on your own, with the one you love, or just the one you’re with.

 “Eye Know” (1989)

 Advertisement

 In matters of the heart it’s sometimes best to lay your cards on the table: “Eye Know” is one of the best love songs ever written, period, and I almost feel guilty for putting nine songs after it. Steely Dan has never sounded so warm, and neither has rap.

 “Talkin’ Bout Hey Love” (1991)

 De La followed up 3 Feet High with the pitch-dark, controversial, and totally brilliant De La Soul Is Dead. This he-said-she-said exchange over a knockout Stevie Wonder sample is a sneakily affecting rumination on maturity, commitment, and the pros and (mostly) cons of both.

 “I Am I Be” (1993)

 Most connoisseurs hold 1993’s Buhloone Mindstate to be De La Soul’s finest album through-and-through, a serious, fully adult and staggeringly complex collection of music. “I Am I Be” is a masterpiece of existential melancholy, and for many on this holiday there’s no more appropriate emotion.

 “Breakadawn” (1993)

 Not a love song in any conventional sense, but the dazzling wordplay and sample of Michael Jackson’s “I Can’t Help It” carry their own breathless romance. Plus, you’ll probably need this pick-me-up in between “I Am I Be” and what comes next.

 “Fallin’” (with Teenage Fanclub, 1993)

 The best track on the cultish footnote that was the Judgment Night soundtrack, an album-length pairing of rock bands with rap groups with mostly forgotten results. But “Fallin’” has endured as a gorgeous, impossibly sad and ferociously adored gem of De La’s catalog. To paraphrase Smokey Robinson, you gotta slow-dance to keep from crying.

 “Betta Listen” (1996)

 The level of consistency that De La maintained from 3 Feet High through 1996’s Stakes Is High was so insanely lofty that its majesty only became apparent in looking back—at the time it just seemed like the normal way of things. This sexed-up ode to cat-and-mouse games is as buzzed and funky as an impromptu dance-floor hookup.

 “More Than U Know” (Prince Paul ft. De La Soul, 1999)

 A highlight of Prince Paul’s generally fantastic A Prince Among Thieves, “More Than U Know” found De La reuniting with the producer of their youth for what’s either a strikingly elaborate metaphor for dependency (chemical, romantic, otherwise) or a strikingly unelaborate excuse to complain about airline travel (n.b.: real talk). In 1999 this beat sounded throwback; in 2014 it just sounds timeless.

 “Oooh.” (ft. Redman, 2000)

 Happy Valentine’s Day to me, because I’ve been head-over-heels in love with this song for fourteen years. Not particularly mushy, though Redman’s incredible choruses have a certain rough chivalry to them.

 “If It Wasn’t For You” (Handsome Boy Modeling School ft. De La Soul, 2004)

 The de facto opener on Prince Paul and Dan the Automator’s sophomore effort White People, “If It Wasn’t For You” pays homage to love in all its forms, some expected and others less so. A devilishly clever and oddly heartwarming piece of music.

 “Pushin’ Aside, Pushin’ Along” (First Serve, 2012)

 In the spring of 2012 Pos and Dave re-emerged alongside French production team 2 & 4 with De La Soul’s Plug 1 & Plug 2 Present First Serve, a mischievously opaque concept album (as if these dudes made other kinds) about a pair of kids with eyes on the rap game. “Pushin’ Aside” was the album’s standout, a hooky and bone-rattling Valentine to hip-hop itself. As a quarter-century of De La Soul has reminded us time and again, there are few things more worthy of our unconditional love. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| In honor of next month's 25th anniversary of their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul are making their entire catalog available for free download for 25 hours on the group's website. The download bonanza will begin on Friday, February 14th at 11 a.m. EST until Saturday at noon.

 Check out 10 Unseen Photos Included in De La Soul's Album Downloads

 "It's about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it," De La Soul member Posdnuos tells Rolling Stone. "It's been too long where our fans haven't had access to everything. This is our way of showing them how much we love them."

 The same things that made 3 Feet High and other De La albums so influential — its creative, if not fully licensed, use of a myriad of samples — has also prevented the group's work from appearing on many digital platforms. "It's been a trying journey," admits Posdnuos. "We've been blessed to be in the Library of Congress, but we can't even have our music on iTunes. We've been working very hard to get that solved." The rapper points to frequent personnel changes at record labels and hazy language in early contracts that have led to long delays in properly clearing the group's catalog.

 The release of the group's catalog is the first of numerous upcoming projects. In a few weeks, they'll post new songs to their site, with You're Welcome, their first album since 2004's The Grind Date, expected to be released before summer. Next month will also see the release of Preemium Soul on the Rocks, a six-song EP with three beats each from DJ Premier and Pete Rock. The group is also planning a visit to Detroit to work on an unreleased beat from J Dilla, the prolific producer who passed away in 2006. "Dilla was the Tupac of producers," says Posdnuos. "He has so many unreleased things that no one has heard. His family knows how vital and important an ingredient his music was to our work."

 Where does 3 Feet High and Rising rank on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time?

 Asked about the status of You're Welcome, an album originally scheduled for release last year, Posdnuos says that it's "coming along amazingly," but points to self-criticism in its delay. "We have tons of music, but we're our own worst critics," admits the rapper. "Certain groups have too many 'yes men.' In our group, we have too many 'no men.' When we look back on some of the stuff we have, we're like, 'Yo, we need to just put this out.' The album is still called You're Welcome, but we also have this whole other album that we're working on that…Wooo, I wish I could talk about it."

 Twenty-five years into their career, the group is ready, if somewhat cautiously, to adopt the more-is-more release schedule of its younger peers. "We're just getting in the mode of constantly giving people new music," says Posdnuos. "I'll be the first to say that not everyone can do it. You can put out a new mixtape every week, but it can dilute what you're putting out because you haven't had enough time to see what's going on with your life to write something from a different angle. With us, we've sat a long time without releasing an album. It's high time we start releasing a bunch of stuff because it's there." |||||
What is a summary?

– De La Soul has found a pretty cool way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its first hip-hop album, 3 Feet High and Rising: The group is making its entire catalog free for download for 25 hours, reports Rolling Stone. Fans can get to it through the group's website until 11am EST tomorrow. "It's about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it," says one of the trio, Posdnuos. That hasn't always been easy because the band's heavy use of samples has led to copyright headaches, explains Rolling Stone. Slate, meanwhile, picks out 10 De La Soul songs perfect for Valentine's Day.