TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 10-20-15

TODAY'S TALKIN G POINTS Canada made Justin Trudeau its new prime minister. The liberal party leader defeated incumbent Stephen Harper, a conservative who had been in power for nearly a decade, in a landslide election. At 43, Trudeau will be the second youngest prime minister in Canadian history.  The election itself also made history as the longest federal election in modern Canadian history ... for lasting less than three months. Seriously, Canadians couldn't wait for it to end. "If only," sighed every last American citizen.  In 10 days, six black churches in St. Louis were set ablaze. An arsonist set the front doors of all the churches on fire, sparking an investigation into whether the act could be motivated by race or religion. Texas moved to defund Planned Parenthood. One week after the care provider promised to stop accepting reimbursements for fetal tissue donations, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the state’s plans to eliminate taxpayer funding for the organization through Medicaid. Other states have already tried to cut funding for Planned Parenthood and it’sbeen a major uphill battle. Getting a drone for Christmas? You’ll need to register it before you fly. Recreational drones and airplanes had hundreds of near-misses this summer, which made the FAA really nervous. Now U.S. officials are cracking down on safety in the skies by making drone operators register their gadgets with the government. There’s a huge hidden cost to your drinking habit. We’re all familiar with the physical hangover, the moral hangover and, of course, the hit our wallets take from those martinis, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just found that society’s paying a lot for your favorite cocktails too. How much exactly? In 2010, our collective drinking habits cost the U.S. nearly $250 billion between health care costs, crime, loss of productivity at work and other factors. Curious about how much your happy-hour drinks cost taxpayers annually? Find out here. Facebook now warns users when they’re the victim of state-sponsored attacks. In addition to people you may know, you’ll now be able to see people who may be attacking your account and your data. Facebook says it’s following in Google’s footsteps with this new security feature to protect users because “these types of attacks tend to be more advanced and dangerous than others.”