French Massacre: Twelve people are dead in Paris today in a massacre at the offices of the weekly French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Gunmen entered the offices in late morning, asking for some people by name, according to reports. Several well-known editors and cartoonists were killed, as well as two police officers.

A suspected three gunmen drove off and an enormous manhunt is underway in Paris. Their abandoned car has been found.

   The assault is suspected to be a terrorist attack in revenge for the magazine publishing caricatures and satires about the Prophet Muhammed. The magazine had previously been firebombed. One of the surviving staffers texted to a friend, “I’m alive. There is death all around me. Yes, I am there. The jihadists spared me.”

The Market: The Dow Jones dropped another 130 points yesterday on hand wringing about the price of oil and future prospects for the economy. Oil has dropped from $107 a barrel last June to $50 on Tuesday. While that’s a great thing for most people it threatens the jobs of large numbers of workers in support, development, and production of oil as less profitable operations will be put in mothballs. Already US Steel announced the layoff of 750 people who make tubular steel for the oil industry.

House News: The White House announced yesterday for the first time that President Obama would veto any bill passed by Congress to approve the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf. White House spokesman Josh Earnest did not say the president planned to block the pipeline entirely, only that it’s “premature to evaluate the project before something as basic as the route of the pipeline has been determined.”

Also in Washington yesterday, Speaker John Boehner warded off internal dissent to be elected to his third term leading the House of Representatives. But more than two-dozen Republicans voted for other candidates, amounting to the most dissenting votes on a sitting House Speaker since 1923. Boehner, the weeper, said he wil work with President Obama and that “As Speaker, all I ask – and, frankly, expect – is that we disagree without being disagreeable.”

AirAsia: Search teams have located the tail section of the missing AirAsia passenger jet in the Java Sea. Divers descended to take pictures. The tail is where a jet’s black box flight recorders usually are located, but so far there’s no report that the recorder’s audible signal has been picked up. Only 40 bodies have been recovered of the 162 people on board.

NYPD: Two suspects have been arrested in the wounding of two NYPD officers the night before last. The NY Daily News reports that the father of one of the wounded cops told the NY Post that his son was not happy to receive a visit from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has been branded as anti-police.

Cold: Grand Forks, -11; Chicago, 0; Sandusky, 10; Atlanta, 34.

Justice Files: Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, once mentioned as a presidential possibility, was sent to prison for two years yesterday for his conviction on corruption charges. He was found guilty of taking $177,000 in loans, vacations and gifts from a rich friend who was trying to promote his vitamin supplement business through the governor’s mansion. After listening to hours of character testimony from friends and associates, McDonnell stood and said to the judge, “I stand before you as a heartbroken and humbled man.”

Brief Denial: Harvard legal nerd Alan Dershowitz has filed a detailed denial that he was in any way involved in a sex scandal involving an underage girl that has embroiled Britain’s Prince Andrew. And you know, we absolutely believe him.

The Young and The Restless: The Young America Foundation reports that its “Youth Misery Index” has reached a record high of 106.5. It’s up from 98.6 in 2013. The index is calculated by adding numbers for youth unemployment, student loan debt, and per capital national debt. So, the youth of America are miserable. The YAF doesn’t seem to figure in the amount of sex the kids are having.

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