Netanyahu Resets, Wine and Bullets

Bibi Rebuilds: After winning the national election Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to build a governing coalition that shrugs off some of its most extreme conservatives, but also some of the center left members of Parliament who pushed him into negotiating with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s big causes are denying Iran a nuclear weapon and now, preventing the Palestinians from having their own state. But lurking in the background is the quality of life and cost of living for Israelis. As they say in America, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

The other lingering question is whether Netanyahu and President Obama will repair their fractured relationship after Bibi spoke to Congress and came out at the last moment against a Palestinian state. Obama might not even try.

Death in Wine Country: In the land of money, ego, and grapes, a long standing dispute between two men in California’s Napa wine country ended yesterday with one man gunned down among the vines, and his killer committing suicide.

Emad Tawfilis had invested $1.2 million, of which $800,000 was cash, with vintner Robert Dahl, a man with a questionable history. The deal went bad and devolved into lawsuits. Yesterday the two men had a meeting at the vineyard and Tawfilis ended up calling sheriff’s deputies saying he was wounded, running through the vines to escape Dahl. Equipped with a silenced 22 pistol, Dahl finished off Tawfilis and then turned the gun on himself.

Econ 101: The Federal Reserve indicated yesterday that it will raise interest rates before long, but not in April. Fed Chairman Janet Yellen said she’s still pushing for maximum employment and a 2 percent inflation rate, both of which are supported by low interest rates.

World: Tunisian officials said the gunmen killed in yesterday’s attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis were not linked to any known terror group.

The gunmen killed 20 people before they were shot down by police.

A video released on the Internet by an Islamic group supported the attack and claimed to know details without directly taking responsibility. The message said Westerners and Israelis make great targets. “Lure them in roads, lodges, dance clubs and bars. Slaughter them on the beaches, drown them in the sea, poison them on the roads by giving them something poisoned to eat, break their skull with a stone, or suffocate them with a pillow in the room.”

The Sports Page: Skier Lindsey Vonn, who sat out the Sochi Olympics with a knee that has been rebuilt twice, today won the World Cup Super G championship in Meribel, France, just one day after wining the downhill event. Coming back from potentially career-ending injuries, Vonn, 30, has won 19 World Cup championships, more than any other woman skier.

Vonn said yesterday, “To be injured for the last two years and to come back from two major knee surgeries, it just feels amazing to be standing here.”

The Obit Page: Andy Fraser, the former bassist for the British rock band Free who co-wrote the classic anthem “All Right Now,” has died in California at age 62. At age 15 Fraser played with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. A year later, he was a founding member of Free. The group broke up by 1972 and Fraser never again had the success he did with that one song.

Coffee, Black: An effort by the Starbucks chain to provoke discussions about race relations while people buy their morning Joe has backfired for the company run mostly by white people with thousands of minorities behind the coffee counter. Starbucks’ “Race Together” campaign has resulted in both parody and anger on social media. The News Hour host Gwen Ifill, who is black, tweeted, “Honest to God, if you start to engage me in a race conversation before I’ve had my morning coffee, it will not end well.”

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

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