NATIONAL

“The Brian Williams scandal has burst onto the public square through a feat of Internet accountability. After NBC Nightly News last week posted to Facebook a clip of the anchor reminiscing about having embedded with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, some Facebookers took issue with the particulars. Whereas Williams claimed that he was riding in a helicopter that was forced down after being hit by an RPG, others had a different recollection. ‘Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened,’ wrote Lance Reynolds in a Facebook comment responding to the Williams segment.” – Washington Post

“I don’t know the particulars about that day in Iraq,” Rather told POLITICO. “I do know Brian. He’s a longtime friend and we have been in a number of war zones and on the same battlefields, competing but together. Brian is an honest decent man, an excellent reporter and anchor–and a brave one. I can attest that — like his predecessor Tom Brokaw — he is a superb pro, and a gutsy one.” – POLITICO

“Secretary of State John Kerry, working diligently on some extraordinarily difficult foreign policy issues — China, neo-Soviet Russia, Islamic State, Iran, etc — isn’t getting even a tiny bit of credit these days from the tweedy, elbow-patched, wing-chair crowd.” – Washington Post

“Fundamentally, the protection against life-threatening plague is one of the original reasons government exists. We’ve had mandatory vaccines for schoolchildren in America since before the Emancipation Proclamation. The Supreme Court has upheld that practice as constitutional for over a century, and only the political fringes believe there ought to be a debate about such matters. This is one of the few areas where government necessarily exercises power.” – The Federalist

“President Obama has submitted a budget proposal to Congress. There are many possible responses that Congress might offer in return. The correct one is this: ‘Thank you for your input, Mr. President. But we’ll take it from here.'” – Kevin Williamson/National Review

“Unless we get on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.” – AP

“Sen. Rand Paul will oppose—very publicly—the nomination of U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General of the United States.” – Breitbart

“As Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) surges in the polls — the first real movement in the race not driven by name recognition — we are beginning to see that he lines up with a traditional, robust view of American leadership in the world. In his State of the State speech, when it certainly was not required, he gave an emphatic statement of support to France, which had just experienced the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and declared that America stood with those fighting Islamic terrorists:” – Washington Post

“New Hampshire may have a new front-runner in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The first survey conducted in the first-in-the-nation primary state since Mitt Romney’s exit from the 2016 White House race indicates that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leads the pack of potential Republican presidential contenders.” – NH1

“Want to see Obama’s 2008 campaign in a nutshell? Check out the young political activists recruited by the V-2015 campaign to elect ‘anyone but Netanyahu.’ If you thought the ‘anyone but’ goal was vague, try listening to their platform. Count how many times ‘hope and change’ is repeated and remind yourselves that this is what got an American president elected — twice.” – PJ Media

LOUISIANA

“A photo posted Tuesday by Louisiana political blogger Lamar White Jr. does not in fact show Bobby Jindal’s official portrait but rather a constituent’s painting that is featured prominently in the Louisiana governor’s office.” – Mashable

“Kyle Plotkin, chief of staff for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, took on Twitter critics of the governor’s portrait, calling them ‘race-baiting tweets about Gov Jindal not being brown enough in a portrait loaned by a constituent.’” – NY Daily News

“The story broke on CenLamar, the liberal website that is becoming the receptacle of choice for Democratic operatives. Lamar White, the owner and sole proprietor of that postage stamp of cyberspace, has emerged as the go-to guy for liberals planting story seeds that may not take root in traditional media outlets.” – James Varney/NOLA.com

“Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday accused the state’s top school board and the Louisiana Department of Education of ignoring the pleas of parents who want their children to skip upcoming Common Core tests.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Gov. Bobby Jindal’s statement was direct, urging all parents to get their children vaccinated and reminding them that it’s a requirement to go to public school, Pre-K and just about every private school.” – WWL-TV

“Records obtained by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and WVUE Fox 8 News, however, show that invoices submitted to the sheriff by Major Services don’t provide any information beyond the names of company employees and the hours they worked each day. The documents don’t include details about the specific work performed, making it difficult to justify the more than $1 million per year Major Services has been paid in recent years , a criticism echoed by the city’s inspector general last year.” – NOLA.com

“Renee Benson told a Texas judge Wednesday that her relationship with her father, Tom Benson, has been deteriorating since he married for the third time in 2004, and that she has not seen him in two months or heard from him since the end of last year.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“The Obama administration says that 148,552 Louisiana residents have signed up for Affordable Care Act policies as of January 30 — 47,000 more than for all of 2014.” – NOLA.com

“Southern’s NCAA sanctions continue to mount. All of the Jaguars’ athletic teams have been banned from NCAA postseason competition for more than a year because the university submitted unusable data in reporting student-athletes’ Academic Progress Rates, a ban that extends through Nov. 1.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“CATS employees and union representatives are voicing their concerns with the transit system in the form of a protest.” – WAFB