Obama Wants Long-Term Unemployed Hired, Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul Leads Early NH 2016 Polling, Lawmakers Worried About High Propane Prices in Cold Weather: P.M. Links

President Obama said he
wants private companies and the federal government to do more
for the long-term unemployed. The chair of his Council of Economic
Advisors, meanwhile,
insisted the anxiety of wealthy Americans over the president’s
economic policies were mere “hyperventilation.”
A report from the State Department
found the environmental impact of the XL Keystone pipeline
would be minimal, but did not set a deadline for the White House to
approve it.
Vice Admiral Michael Rogers will be
appointed the NSA’s new chief, while Richard Ledgett, who
previously floated the idea of an amnesty for Edward Snowden, will
become the agency’s top civilian official.
Hillary Clinton leads Democrat primary voters in an
early poll in New Hampshire, getting 75 percent to Joe Biden’s
10 percent. With 16 percent of Republican primary voters, Rand Paul
has a slim lead in a crowded field. The state’s Republican senator,
Kelly Ayotte, came in second at 13 percent.
Lawmakers in Washingtoon, Republican and Democrat, are
pushing the feds to look into why propane prices are getting so
high as the country gets so cold.
Bomb squads were
sent out to several hotels near the site of this weekend’s
Super Bowl in New Jersey after envelopes containing an unknown
white powder were found. Preliminary tests
indicated the substance, also sent to Rudy Giuliani’s office in
New York City, was corn starch.
Jesse Eisenberg was
cast in the role of Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman/Batman
film.