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December 28, 2012 | | Best Journalism From the sprawling sex-abuse scandal that shattered an Oklahoma megachurch to the shocking, decades-long ordeal of an innocent man convicted in Texas, The Daily Beast’s David Sessions picks the best essays and journalism of the year. Plus, the year in photos and more 2012 in review. Finger-Pointing Obama will meet with Congressional leaders—including Boehner, Reid, McConnell and Pelosi—at the White House on Friday in a last-ditch attempt to reach a fiscal-cliff deal. The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz says both sides are playing blame-game politics, with no budget deal in sight just days before the year-end deadline. It’s all part of why Washington lacks the will to avoid the train wreck. HARSH REACTION Not exactly surprising, but devastating nonetheless. Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a bill on Friday that will ban all overseas U.S. adoptions. The unprecedented move is part of a harsh response by Putin for a U.S. law that targets alleged human-rights violators—a feud only escalated after Russian judge on Friday acquitted the only official to go to trial in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer whose death inspired the U.S. law. While some top Russian officials—including the foreign minister—have been outspoken against the ban, it passed both houses of Parliament overwhelming and Putin signed it less than 24 hours after it appeared on his desk. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said to the state news agency that “practically, all adoption stops on Jan. 1.” The Great Firewall China is making its Internet controls even tighter. New rules unveiled on Friday would require users to use their real names when signing up with service providers and legally require those providers to delete posts containing “illegal information.” They must also take “relevant measures, including removing the information and saving records, before reporting to supervisory authorities.” The stricter rules come after a series of government-corruption scandals, which Internet users exposed. A government spokesman said, “When people exercise their rights, including the right to use the Internet, they must do so in accordance with the law and Constitution, and not harm the legal rights of the state, society ... or other citizens.” 41 George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff sought to alleviate the fears of the former president’s family and friends, telling them in an email on Thursday that Bush “has every intention of staying put.” Bush was recently moved into intensive care at Houston’s Methodist Hospital. While the aide, Jean Becker, admitted that Bush will be in the hospital for “a while” due to his age and complications from bronchitis and Parkinson’s disease, Becker also said that the health care Bush is receiving is “unequaled anywhere.” Becker wrote, “He would ask me to tell you to please put the harps back in the closet.” | | 
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