TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 08-17-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS AT&T helped the NSA spy on the Internet on a vast scale. Working from previously unpublished documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, a New York Times investigation (paywall) revealed an extraordinary, decades-long partnership between AT&T and the NSA that gave the agency access to billions of private emails flowing across the telecom giant’s domestic networks. The company also installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs on American soil and “provided technical assistance in carrying out a secret court order permitting the wiretapping of all Internet communications at the United Nations headquarters.” Rescue crews may have a lead on an Indonesian passenger plane that crashed Sunday. Indonesian searchers "detected a signal" (paywall) and may have spotted debris from the plane that went missing in Papua with 54 people on board. Donald Trump has jury duty. The leading Republican presidential candidate has been summoned to appear in New York State Supreme Court this morning. Trump joined fellow presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and many other 2016 contenders for chaotic appearances at the Iowa State Fair over the weekend. Trump, naturally, arrived in his own helicopter and offered rides to a randomly selected handful of Iowa children. Meanwhile, currently fourth-place GOP candidate Mike Huckabee said on CNN’s "State of the Union" Sunday that an 11-year-old Paraguayan rape victim should have to bear her rapist’s child. Donald Trump's immigration plan is finally here — and as anyone tracking his campaign might have predicted, it's a real doozy. In case you missed it last week, Rosie O’Donnell had a pretty epic clapback to Donald Trump’s sexist attack during the first GOP debate. A glitch grounded or delayed hundreds of flights on Saturday. A major malfunction caused delays and cancellations across the country, but hit New York and Washington, D.C., the hardest. The FAA said in a statement Sundaythat the problem was possibly caused by a software upgrade. A St. Louis police officer bragged on Facebook about his “annual Michael Brown bonus.” The Facebook post was an apparent reference to the reported$4-5 million in overtime and associated costs related to the high-profile police operations and protests in Ferguson, Missouri, since the death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown last August.

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