Skip Those, Read This: The Huffington Post leads with its own analysis of a 65-0 New Mexico House vote to move the state's money to credit unions and small banks. Since the new year began, Huffington has been urging people to move their money from big banks, which it largely blames for the financial crisis. It's part of a "Move Your Money" campaign that you can read about here. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is not a fan of the campaign, though when asked about it, he fails to explain why. New Mexico's bill, which is supported by Gov. Bill Richardson, is opposed by big banks. "Sources said that despite the support for the bill, it still may face quiet opposition from the large bank lobby, which may seek to stall or defeat the measure," the Credit Union Times reports.
Filibuster Fever: The Daily Beast leads with a Wall Street Journal report on the latest blow to the president's appointments by Senate Republicans. This time, they (and a handful of Democrats to boot) blocked the confirmation of union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Becker received 52 votes, eight short of the filibuster-proof 60. To bypass filibusters, President Barack Obama said he's considering making recess appointments. If the president appoints someone while the Senate is out of session, he or she can serve for up to a year without confirmation. Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein is among those who have called for an end to the filibuster, and here he explains how to go about it.
Haiti Death Toll: The Slatest picks up a BBC report on updated estimates of Haiti's death toll, with the government pushing up the number to 230,000. Even this number could fall short, as government officials are not counting private funerals or the dead buried by their own families. The death toll is "approaching that of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 250,000 people," the BBC reports.
Catch of the Day: Everyone loves a story that sends up a pompous French philosopher, right? The Daily Beast picks up a New York Times report on how Bernard-Henri Lévy recently got hoodwinked. In his new book "On War in Philosophy," Lévy cited a fake philosopher, Jean-Baptiste Botul, who was created by a French journalist and has a satirical following and a Wikipedia entry. But Lévy believed Botul was real and is now being chided in Paris. To American audiences, Lévy might be best known for an underwhelming (and incredibly expensive) series of essays he wrote for the Atlantic magazine, retracing an American visit by an earlier Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville. (In his scathing review of the series, later turned into a book, Garrison Keillor likened it to "the grandiosity of a college sophomore, a student padding out a term paper.")
So Long Snow Days: Pat's Papers picks up a USA Today story about how telecommuting has ruined snow days. "The federal government was shut down for the second day in a row Tuesday and many offices were empty in the nation's snowbound capital, but work continued -- in homes across the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region," USA Today reports. The same goes for the private sector. Work goes on, and according to one person interviewed, "The only difference is I'm in my pajamas."
