TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 10-09-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize has gone to Tunisian democracy groups. The National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition spanning unions, business leaders, lawyers and rights activists, made a "decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy” in Tunisia during the first Arab Spring movement,according to the Nobel prize committee. As the only so-called Arab Spring state to keep its democratic aspirations alive as war plagues Libya, Syria and Yemen and Egypt, Tunisia has been a spot of hope since developing a peaceful political process when the country was on the brink of civil war in 2013.

The city of North Charleston reached a $6.5 million settlement with the family of Walter Scott. Scott was fatally shot in April by a former Charleston police officer Michael Slager after being pulled over for a broken brake light. "This is the largest settlement of this type case in the history of South Carolina," said City Attorney Brady Hair.

Kevin McCarthy shocked everyone by backing out of the race for Speaker of the House. It looked like the House Majority Leader was a shoe-in to replace John Boehner — until he abruptly announced he was withdrawing right before House Republicans were supposed to nominate a candidate. Lawmakers postponed the vote so they could figure out what to do next.

Democratic lawmakers are pushing the TSA to reform screenings for trans people. After a trans woman spoke out on Twitter last month about being held by security for 40 minutes because TSA workers found an “anomaly” (read: her penis), Congressional Dems started writing letters. Their point: Airport officials need to select a gender before every screening, and that doesn’t jive so well with gender nonconforming folks. The TSA said employees complied with agency standards.

NASA declared that Pluto “is alive!” Scientists just discovered that the dwarf planet has frozen water and blue skies. It was no Mars discovery (which raised questions about alien life), but there are some stunning new photos.

Netflix raised its prices. Binge-watching just got a little more expensive now that the streaming service has hiked the monthly price by a dollar. Current watchers get a bit of a grace period, but the price will go up immediately for new subscribers. One analyst estimates that the little change means an extra $750 million in Netflix’s pocket each year.