Cheat Sheet - Free the Weed, Mr. President

Today: Snow to Pound the Northeast , The Fourth War: My Lunch with a Jihadi , Ukraine Cops Text Protesters January 21, 2014 LIGHT UP 1. Free the Weed, Mr. President With just three years left in office and a possible Republican landslide in the midterms, Obama must be in something close to panic mode. What better way to ensure a lasting legacy than to legalize marijuana? asks The Daily Beast's Nick Gillespie. The drug war is a long-running and ineffective disaster that undermines the rule of law. By ending the war on pot, Obama would be remembered as a true visionary. Read it at The Daily Beast BRRRR 2. Snow to Pound the Northeast Get out your mittens and your flask. You're going to need it with the dome of arctic air that will send temperatures plummeting throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Major snowstorms are expected to hit NYC, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Subzero temperatures are expected in Wisconsin, Michigan, and upstate New York. Thankfully, this isn't another polar vortex, and temperatures won't be quite as chilling as they were a few weeks ago. Instead of it being 40 to 60 below in Minnesota, it will only be about 20 below, so there's a silver lining. Read it at AccuWeather BREAKING BREAD 3. My Lunch With a Jihadi: Two Sides of the Iraq War It's not easy for two veterans to open up, especially when they were enemies. The Daily Beast's Elliot Ackerman, a Marine captain who fought in Iraq, writes about meeting Abu Hassar, a jihadi who ran guns and soldiers into Iraq. Over a meal, they realized they were veterans from different sides of a war that had no end in sight. Read it at The Daily Beast NSA-ISH 4. Ukraine Cops Text Protesters During a second consecutive night of clashes in Kiev between anti-government protesters and police, violence erupted with young men throwing firecrackers and petrol bombs and fending off attacks by Ukrainian security forces. Angered by the government's kowtowing to Russia and rejection of a planned treaty to join the EU, citizens have again taken to the streets. The Ukrainian government has passed a series of new anti-protest laws in the past week in an attempt to squelch demonstrations. It is also using cellphone data to track protesters and target them. When people are near riots between police and protesters, they receive a text saying "Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance." Read it at The New York Times REPENT 5. Chicago Archdiocese Comes Clean More than 6,000 pages of internal documents handed over to lawyers of sex-abuse victims by the Archdiocese of Chicago will be made public today. Thirty priests were implicated in the legal settlement, but the archdiocese says it has credible evidence of abuse by at least 65. "I apologize to all those who have been harmed by these crimes and this scandal, the victims themselves, most certainly, but also rank-and-file Catholics who have been shamed by the actions of some priests and bishops," said Cardinal Francis George, who has led the archdiocese since 1997. Read it at Washington Post NEVERMIND U.N. Withdraws Iran Invitation To participate in Syria peace talks. DISTURBING HIV+ Man Secretly Filmed Sex And allegedly knowingly exposed 30+ to virus. SYRIA Grisly Photos May Implicate Assad In "systematic torture and killing." BAD BLOOD Belichick Bashes Welker After Sunday's hit against Aqib Talib. APPLAUSE China Lifts Lady Gaga Ban Still censoring ARTPOP cover. GET The Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You'll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast's diverse group of contributors. GET Culture Beast Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast. Lethal Injection: Cruel and Wrong by Andrew Cohen History's Greatest Headline by Brandy Zadrozny The Luckiest Guy in Las Vegas by John L. Smith

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