New Defense Secretary (Maybe) Picked, Detroit Has Massive Blackout, Ukraine's New Government Forms: P.M. Links

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  Credit: ifmuth / photo on flickr

  It is possible that former Pentagon official Ashton Carter is President Barack Obama's pick to be the next secretary of defense, but it's also possible it's just a big Beltway game of telephone that will end up with some media outlet reporting that Elaine Schwartz, a dental hygienist from Akron, Ohio, will be joining the president's cabinet.

• A cable failure caused a massive power outage in Detroit, affecting even emergency responders and jails.
• A high school student in Georgia is starting a petition to try to kill off the federal school lunch guidelines after a cafeteria worker denied her honey mustard, which certainly must be some sort of United Nations violation.
• New York City has allocated $130 million to reopen Arkham Asylum increase health services for mentally troubled people in the criminal justice system.
• Ukraine's parliament has finally hammered out the formation of a new government.
• Cyber Monday sales were up, but not by as much as analysts predicted because sales are now things that are happening all the time, spreading out consumer spending.

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