Wednesday Links

Some things going on in the middle of the week:

From Fox News, the House has passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which overturns some of President Obama's executive actions on illegal immigration.  (Didn't Obama say "pass a bill"?)

From news.com.au, an Ecuadorian beauty queen dies during a liposuction operation, which is not the first time that such a thing has happened.  (via the New York Post)

From Xconomy, the top American metro areas for STEM workers are Houston, Austin, Raleigh and Denver.

From The Weekly Standard, the Pentagon has labeled a recent Twitter/YouTube hacking as "cyber-vandalism".

From The New York Times, some vendors in France are reporting that their allotment of Charlie Hebdo "had sold out before daybreak".  (via Weasel Zippers)

From AL.com, the state of Alabama has the highest rate of school employees committing sex crimes with students.

From Frontpage Mag, the political joke double standard.

From Zero Hedge, U.S. retail sales this past December had their largest decrease since June of 2012, and not due to falling gasoline prices.

From MyFoxChicago, U.S. businesses expanded their inventory this past November, even with weak sales during the previous four months.

From JuneauEmpire, 54 people have been arrested in France under hate speech laws for "defending terror".

From CNSNews, Representative Chris van Hollen (D-MD) wants to shift tax breaks from the wealthy to the middle class.  (Wasn't the highest income tax rate recently shifted upward?)

From The Illinois Observer, the first executive actions of new Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner (R) have drawn both praise and criticism from the state's lawmakers.

From The Times Of Israel, U.S. Senators Heller (R-NV) and Cruz (R-TX) have introduced a bill to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

From American Thinker, the problems with multiculturalism and "the myth of compromise".

From UPI, the Singapore navy has located the fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501, using an undersea robot.

And from ESPN and the "you can't make this stuff up" department, NASCAR driver Kurt Busch testifies that his ex-girlfriend is a trained assassin.