NATIONAL

“Thirty-five percent of Republican primary voters support Trump, up 13 points since October, and his highest level of support in CBS News polling. Ted Cruz (16 percent) has moved into second place, while Ben Carson, who led the October poll, has dropped to third.” – CBS News

“You might not have noticed this, but on Monday morning Monmouth University released a poll on the GOP primary race in Iowa that showed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) vaulting into first place with 24 percent of the vote, five points ahead of the supposed GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.” – Scott McKay/American Spectator

“Three candidates for the Republican nomination have broken away from the rest of the pack, and two of them — businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — give the GOP establishment nightmares.” – The Hill

“Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire: Hillary Clinton still insists she didn’t tell the grieving families of the Benghazi victims that an anti-Islam video was to blame. Yet family members say she said just that, three days after the attack, at the Sept. 14, 2012, ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base.” – New York Post

“She was asked a direct question: Did she, or did she not, tell those family members that the Internet film was responsible for their loved ones’ deaths? She says she did not. This is a direct contradiction of very explicit memories shared on the record by multiple people who have far less incentive to lie than, say, a truth-challenged politician seeking power. . . . Here we have the presumptive Democratic nominee essentially arguing that Benghazi victims’ relatives are either forgetful simpletons, or liars. How mysterious that they all “forgot” in exactly the same way, and that their ‘lies’ all match up.” – Guy Benson/Townhall

“Obamacare has an incurable preexisting condition: It eats away at the private insurance market on which it relies. That market cannot survive Obamacare’s hubristic mandates, and Obamacare cannot survive the collapse of that market. On their present course, both are doomed.” – Weekly Standard

“Obamacare lumbers on, zombielike, already a dead program walking even though some of its key provisions have yet to take effect, having been delayed for political reasons by the Obama administration. Maybe Marco Rubio’s shrewd stake through the heart will bring the monster down. In any event, it is a good example of how conservatives in Washington can be effective as well as inspiring. Effectiveness is what we conservatives should vote for.” – Power Line

“The super PAC supporting Jeb Bush is racing through its massive war chest much faster than money is coming in, spending close to $50 ­million in a record blitz that has so far failed to lift the former Florida governor’s sputtering presidential candidacy.” – Washington Post

“Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a new video featuring a former Guantanamo detainee, Ibrahim Qosi, who is also known as Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani. In July 2010, Qosi plead guilty to charges of conspiracy and material support for terrorism before a military commission. His plea was part of a deal in which he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors during his remaining time in US custody. Qosi was transferred to his home country of Sudan two years later, in July 2012.” – Long War Journal

“Additionally, the angle of weapons purchaser Enrique Marquez, and his relationship to the Farook family appears to be more intertwined than previously disclosed. Enrique Marquez is ‘married’ to Russian born Mariya Chernykh, (aka Mariya Gigliotti).” – Conservative Treehouse

 

LOUISIANA

“I will admit that change is hard. It riles people up and makes them uncomfortable. But here’s the simple truth: If we didn’t make big decisions in Louisiana, we were headed the way of more government than we can afford, a shrinking pool of jobs, and a shrinking middle class.” – Gov. Bobby Jindal/Baton Rouge Advocate

“And as Jindal’s second term winds down, the Republican has mapped out a farewell tour across the state with stops at some of his biggest triumphs, likely coming to a city near you.” – WWL-TV

“A ‘select group of individuals,’ not the people of New Orleans, is behind the push to purge the city of several monuments related to the Confederacy, City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell said in a fiery statement Wednesday (Dec. 9).” – NOLA.com

“The longtime warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the state’s largest prison and keeper of death row, is resigning amid questions raised by a newspaper about his private real estate dealings.” – Monroe News Star

“Alida Anthony feels vindicated. ‘I’m so excited. … It’s a miracle,’ she said Thursday morning, less than a day after Burl Cain announced he would be stepping down after nearly 21 years as the warden of Angola, Louisiana’s largest prison. Anthony’s son was murdered by a man who has received preferential treatment while in state custody.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Stephen Moret, the head of the LSU Foundation, says Louisiana’s flagship university is ‘dead last‘ among schools in the Southeastern Football Conference when it comes to the rate of alumni giving and the size of the school’s endowment.” – NOLA.com

“Interested in being East Baton Rouge Parish’s next mayor-president? Well, the gig just got a little sweeter. The parish Metro Council on Wednesday approved an annual salary of $175,000 for the next mayor taking office in January 2017.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Another suspected gunman in last month’s Bunny Friend Park shoot out is in police custody, court records show.” – NOLA.com

“The Tigers’ staff salary for the past season is just more than $5.47 million dollars, which is good for tops in the country. LSU leads SEC West rivals Auburn ($5.34 million) and Alabama ($5.23 million), who are second and third on the list respectively.” – LSU Reveille

“New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram will undergo surgery Thursday to repair a tear in his left rotator cuff, head coach Sean Payton said.” – NOLA.com