A.M. Links: Businesses Struggle With Obamacare Costs, Rand Paul Speech Overshadowed Rubio's, Police Deny Deliberately Burning Out Dorner

• Small businesses nearing the 50-employee threshold that triggers many Obamacare regulations actively consider whether to curb their own growth. Why, yes, private sector employment is expected to suffer. On the other hand, big businesses are— Oh, that's right. They're cutting employees back, too, to reduce costs under the new law.

• Rand Paul's state of the union response overshadowed the official GOP speech and made Marco Rubio look like a squish.
• Sen. Diane Feinstein has scheduled a new hearing for February 27 on her proposed assault weapons ban, because she was unhappy with what witnesses at the last hearing had to say. Seriously, that's her announced reason.
• Thinning the tangle of federal criminal statutes would be one handy way to reduce the prison population, suggests the Congressional Research Service.
• Police say, uh uh, no way did they deliberately burn up Christopher Dorner in that cabin in the San Bernardino mountains.
• Greece remains a European (non)garden spot, with 27 percent unemployment and a third of the population expected to live in poverty by year's end. Actually, the economy is pretty crappy all across the Eurozone.
• Police in Syracuse, New York, refuse to give city officials details of the asset forfeiture money they receive or how it's used.

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