Change for NSA: President Obama is scheduled this morning to announce changes in the NSA’s “metadata” program that collects the raw data from telephone communications. Obama is expected to say that the data should be held by the phone companies and searched only by court order. In the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks about the NSA, the president is balancing basic privacy rights against the demands of intelligence agencies searching out terror plots.

Climate Warning: If world carbon emissions continue unabated for another 15 years, climate change could be impossible to reverse with current technology, according to a UN draft report. Carbon emissions continue to rise and outstrip the deployment of clean technologies. The report says the political will to deal with climate change is improving, but not keeping up with the damage being done. Scientists say carbon dioxide needs to stay below 500 parts per million, but it has already passed 400 and could hit 500 with a few decades.

Nation: A midwinter wildfire burned five homes and at least 1,700 acres yesterday in Glendora, 30 miles east of Los Angeles. Three campers were arrested for accidentally starting the fire.

>The Treasury Department is selling 40 percent of Ally Financial, which used to be the lending arm of General Motors. The government sank $17.2 billion into Ally as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) four years ago when the economy was going in the tank. With this sale Treasury will have recovered 89 percent of its investment and will continue to own 37 percent of Ally, which is still primarily an auto lender. So far TARP has turned a profit of several billion dollars selling company stock back into the market.

Lethal: The execution of an Ohio murderer by lethal injection took nearly 25 minutes while the condemned made snorting noises and appeared to be struggling to breathe, according to witnesses. Two drugs not previously used for execution were administered to Dennis McGuire because the supplier of the traditional drugs refused to keep selling them to the state. McGuire’s lawyer called it  “a failed, agonizing experiment.” McGuire killed a pregnant woman in 1989.

The Obit Page: Russell Johnson, the handsome actor who played “The Professor” on the famed sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” has died at age 89.

>Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese army officer who hid on a Philippine island for 29 years after WWII, refusing to believe it was over, has died at 91. Onoda left a Japan made of paper and wood and returned in 1974 to a futuristic world of steel, granite, glass, and neon.  

Punch Line: Comedians share many personality traits with psychotics, according to a study at Oxford University. Manic thinking, like that found in people with bipolar disorder, may help comedians combine unlikely ideas into something funny, according to the study. One of the researchers told the BBC, “Comedians tend to be slightly withdrawn, introverted people who may not always want to socialize, and their comedy is almost an outlet for that. It’s a kind of self-medication.”

Cover Girl: The French actress romantically linked to President Francois Hollande is suing the magazine that published the story. Julie Gayet, 41, claims that the revelation of the affair and photos published in the magazine Closer are a breach of her privacy. The magazine published more details, reporting that the affair has been going on for two years. Gayet is demanding the Euro equivalent of $70,000 in damages. She obviously doesn’t have an American lawyer.

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