OBAMA AGENDA: Jordan carries out new airstrikes against ISIS
Breaking overnight, from the AP: "Jordanian fighter jets have carried out new air strikes, the military said Thursday, a day after the country's king vowed to wage a "harsh" war against Islamic State militants who control parts of neighboring Syria and Iraq. The army statement did not say which country was targeted. Jordan is part of a U.S.-led military coalition that has bombed IS targets in both countries since last fall, but until now Jordanian warplanes are only known to have carried out raids in Syria."
From the New York Times: "A still-classified section of the investigation by congressional intelligence committees into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has taken on an almost mythic quality over the past 13 years — 28 pages that examine crucial support given the hijackers and that by all accounts implicate prominent Saudis in financing terrorism. Now new claims by Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted former member of Al Qaeda, that he had high-level contact with officials of the Saudi Arabian government in the prelude to Sept. 11 have brought renewed attention to the inquiry’s withheld findings, which lawmakers and relatives of those killed in the attacks have tried unsuccessfully to declassify."
“French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are set to travel to Kiev on Thursday afternoon and to Moscow on Friday in an emergency effort to craft a new plan to stop the escalating violence in Eastern Ukraine,” writes the Wall Street Journal.
A Pentagon think tank believes that Vladimir Putin has Asperger’s syndrome, USA Today reports.
The current FDA commissioner is on her way out, writes the Wall Street Journal.
Alex Moe and Frank Thorp report that some Democrats are considering skipping next month's address by Benjamin Netanyahu.
The government employee who operated the drone that crashed on the White House property may be charged, notes the New York Times.
CONGRESS: Bipartisan lunch
Senators had a bipartisan lunch on Wednesday, but the happy talk didn't change a lot on Capitol Hill.
Yes, Aaron Schock will pay for those Downton Abbey-esque renovations in his office.
OFF TO THE RACES: Jeb’s focus on the poor
BUSH: POLITICO notes how much Jeb Bush is trying to separate himself from Mitt Romney by focusing on the poor.
The AP notes that George P. Bush is headlining big rallies on issues that have little to do with his gig as land commissioner.
The Washington Post's Dan Balz muses on whether Bush can make it through the primary process.
CLINTON: Jennifer Palmieri is leaving the White House to join the Clinton team, writes the New York Times.
PERRY: The Washington Post: "Former Texas governor Rick Perry on Thursday will announce that he has recruited more than 80 major donors, including some of the biggest bundlers in Republican politics, to aid his efforts as he prepares for a likely 2016 presidential campaign."
WALKER: The Wisconsin governor also has a dense network of donors to tap, notes the Washington Post.
WARREN: The Boston Globe looks at the earnest - and quite possibly pointless - efforts of pro-Warren organizers in Iowa.
And around the country...
ARIZONA: Will Kyrsten Sinema challenge John Mccain?
CALIFORNIA: Gov. Jerry Brown is open to eliminating all non-medical exemptions to vaccinations, writes the LA Times.
ILLINOIS: New Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is backing local "right to work" laws.
OREGON: A major newspaper is calling for Gov. John Kitzhaber to resign in light of new revelations that his fiancée failed to disclose major consulting payments.
PROGRAMMING NOTES.
*** Thursday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: Tamron Hall speaks with LA Times Beirut Bureau Chief Patrick McDonnell about ISIS execution of a Jordanian pilot, Carl Krawitt, a man about measles and vaccinating children, Miami trial attorney Michael Grieco about the Aaron Hernandez trial, Rail safety expert Larry Mann on the Metro North crash in NY, and Attorney John Burris regarding The Eric Garner grand jury files that may be released today
*** Thursday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews Ambassador Michael McFaul, Ret. General Barry McCaffrey, Newsweek contributor and “Panic Virus” author Seth Mnookin, USA Today’s Ray Locker, NBC’s Tom Costello and Pete Williams, the AP’s Julie Pace and the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart.