The “new” details of the proposed State AG – Banks foreclosure fraud settlement have mostly been revealed before. Under the proposed agreement, between $19 and $25 billion (depending on California’s inclusion, which is unlikely, so I’d expect the smaller number) would be distributed from the banks, in three separate areas. Overall, it’s inadequate.

Occupy Boulder is the latest encampment threatened with eviction. Starting on January 3, a new rule proposed by City Manager Jane Brautigan would close all public spaces between 11pm and 5am, but only for people who aren’t in motion. No doubt it is borne of the same sudden concern for “safety and sanitation” that is currently gripping the nation. There will be a Town Hall to protest this Wednesday, 5 p.m.

As Charlie Pierce writes, one reason why we should hold back on the celebration over the two-month extension on the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance is that the conference committee has yet to work its will on the process. We don’t really know what is bound to come out of that, but we can guess. The GOP passed a bill that will reduce the benefits and make getting them a punitive experience.

Polling for the Republican presidential primary has remained extremely fluid in most of the rest of country, but in New Hampshire Mitt Romney has consistently held a huge lead over the rest of the field. The latest poll from the Boston Globe confirms that Romney is on track to win big in the first primary state.

Ali Abdullah Saleh, the either current or former leader of Yemen, depending on who you talk to, vowed to leave the country for the United States to receive treatment for injuries suffered in an assassination attempt this June. The US has not yet responded to the request to allow Saleh to enter the country, and there are risks if it agrees.

According to his campaign director, Newt Gingrich, famous historian, and perennial candidate for President, compared his inability to qualify for the Virginia primary ballot to the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is tragic.

The seizure of the last remaining tent in the Occupy Albany encampment caused an impassioned tug-of-war between cops and protesters on Friday. So did this require use of chemical weapons? Despite national outrage, the heavy handed treatment of protesters continues while lawless corporations elude justice.

The Keystone XL pipeline will now either receive or be denied its construction permit by February 21, according to the schedule worked out in the two-month stopgap deal to extend the payroll tax, unemployment insurance and the doctor’s fix. But the ultimate fate of tars ands oil may not be decided for years.

During the Christmas mass, the Pope urged the faithful to see through the superficial glitter of the season. At the same time, he wants to continue the Roman Catholic Church’s anti-gay pogrom, but you wouldn’t expect him to sell a ring or a scepter to pay for the discredited ex-gay “therapy”, the ballot attacks on marriage equality and the forthcoming anti-choice and anti-equality campaign dressed up in a cloak of “religious liberty”, now would you?

I wrote Saturday about the Christmas drone truce, a six-week pause in aerial bombing of suspected terrorists over Pakistan, in reaction to a botched airstrike that killed 24 soldiers. Now it looks like this gesture of goodwill (as if “we won’t bomb your country” should be interpreted that way) will not salvage a robust security relationship, but simply allow the US to get kicked out more gracefully.