WELL, YES: It’s Time To Stop Secret Trade Agreements That Undermine Democracy.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: We don’t want to have to get a warrant to search your phone.

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IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Drink Up: More Coffee Could Lower Diabetes Risk.

DON’T BE EVIL: Apple, Google will pay 64,000 engineers to avoid trial on “no-poach” deal.

A class-action lawsuit against Google, Apple, Adobe, and Intel over how they recruited employees was scheduled to go to a jury trial at the end of next month. But it’s not going to happen. Court papers filed today indicate that the case has been settled. Reuters reports that the total settlement sum, which is still not in public court papers, will be $324 million.

A New York Times report on this case, published Sunday, suggested that the parties were nearing settlement. That’s no surprise considering how potentially embarrassing a jury trial could have been for all of these companies.

The lawsuit had already made e-mails between Steve Jobs and Google executives about the agreements public, and more information would have surely come out. Jobs in particular may not have looked good at trial. “If you hire a single one of these people, that means war,” Jobs emailed Sergey Brin, as the Times noted in its post on today’s settlement.

The dispute stems from a deal between several large tech companies to not “cold call” competitors’ employees in order to recruit them. The Justice Department busted all the companies involved back in 2010, and the companies agreed to halt the practice. By agreeing to not compete for each others’ employees, the companies had formed a kind of anticompetitive cabal that kept engineers’ wages down.

Meanwhile, of course, they’re still importing dirt-cheap H1B labor.

A BLOG ABOUT COMMERCIAL SPACE: The Space Economy.

LIVE DISASTER TRAINING in Tornado Alley.

HITTING THE LIMITS OF “No Pain, No Gain.”

SCOTT JOHNSON ON THE WRETCHED HARRY REID, AND HIS ENABLERS:

It seems to me that with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid we have something new under the sun. He revives old-fashioned, LBJ-style corruption in office, as Adam O’Neal’s understated RCP column suggests. He brings pure partisan prevarication and hackery to his office, as Fred Barnes suggests in “Mudslinger in chief.” And he disgraces the institution that he leads, as Victor Davis Hanson judges in “A McCarthy for our time.”

Liberal commentators observe Reid’s shenanigans in the spirit of detached amusement. In this respect Chris Cillizza is representative. It’s the best he and they can do, but it is pathetic.

If that’s the best Cillizza can do as a supposed political junkie — if the chairman of the Republican National Committee is a truer guide to the Reid phenomenon than Cillizza — it’s time for him and his ilk to pursue other opportunities.

As Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid has brought his office to an unprecedented low. There is no lie he will not recite, no libel he will resist so long as it advances some narrow partisan purpose. As Majority Leader, he holds the mirror up to President Obama. They illuminate each other. It’s not a pretty sight.

Nope.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 351.

FIRST MICHELLE OBAMA IN TOPEKA, NOW THIS: Holder cancels appearance in Oklamhoma City amid angry protests. “This man has used his position to advance his own political agenda and that’s not right. He swore to uphold the U.S. Constitution and defend it for all of us — not some of us.”

DEMOCRATS ARE THE PARTY OF YOUTH:

Clinton will be 69 years old on inauguration day 2017, nearly the oldest president ever. She has had a few health scares. By all accounts, she left her previous four-year stint in government service exhausted. She might not run, and the Democrat in second place in the polls, Vice President Joe Biden — 74 on inauguration day — is too old to be president. Beyond them, Democrats have nobody — except Elizabeth Warren. . . . She will be 67 on Inauguration Day 2017. (Has any party ever fielded a group as old as Clinton, Biden and Warren?)

Their candidates are as new as their ideas.

CHANGE: DEATH TOLL FROM THE EBOLA VIRUS CLIMBS.

The fatality rate now stands at at a horrifying 86 percent. There are two small pieces of good news, however: Tests of 19 suspected cases in Sierra Leone came back negative, as have tests of 10 suspected cases in Mali.

The World Health Organization has set up a hotline for people with questions about the virus, in order to combat the spread of misinformation and panic. That’s difficult to do in the face of a deadly epidemic: A group from Médecins sans Frontières had to stop operating in a hospital in Guinea for a time after locals accused them of transporting the virus into the country.

Ebola is a devastating killer with no cure, and it’s important for the international community to invest in preventative measures as well as in the development of a cure. The fact that the disease hasn’t spread to any other country is a sign that the various governments and health care organizations are doing something right, but the world will always have to be on the lookout for potential pandemics. Last month, a flight from Guinea to France was quarantined due to a suspected case, and more recently, a Malaysian man who traveled to the United Arab Emirates brought the MERS virus back home with him. With modern air travel, every country in the world is Guinea’s or the UAE’s next-door neighbor.

Disturbing, but true.

HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): New York Times: Obama Suffers Setbacks in Japan and the Mideast.

WITH OUR POLITICO-MEDIA CLASS, IT’S ALL INCEST ALL THE TIME: Chicago Tribune: If it seemed as though some scenes of CNN’s documentary series “Chicagoland” were coordinated by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall and the show’s producers, that’s because they were.

WOMEN AND “UNREALISTIC” PORTRAYALS OF MEN: Feminists Are Funny, Human.

Here’s the thing: It’s really hard to be outraged about these men going to great lengths to bulk up and lean down, even while reading about the dangerous health risks and blatant exploitation and objectification, because I LOVE IT. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

I love the way it looks. I love looking. A shapely form is actual eye candy: A sweet, delicious, fleeting morsel to devour with your pupils.

Read the whole thing.

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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Professors At U. of Michigan Question Administrators’ Extra Pay.

Overpaid administrators are a problem everywhere.

DALE CARPENTER: Freedom to marry, freedom to disagree: a public statement. Same-sex marriage supporters stand up against the demonization of those who disagree.

FROM ONE DYING INDUSTRY TO ANOTHER? Time Magazine: This is how you resurrect America’s dying malls.

SOME OVERDUE SKEPTICISM: Low-level federal judges balking at law enforcement requests for electronic evidence. “Judges at the lowest levels of the federal judiciary are balking at sweeping requests by law enforcement officials for cellphone and other sensitive personal data, declaring the demands overly broad and at odds with basic constitutional rights. This rising assertiveness by magistrate judges — the worker bees of the federal court system — has produced rulings that elate civil libertarians and frustrate investigators, forcing them to meet or challenge tighter rules for collecting electronic evidence.”

Given an unfortunate general tendency to rubber-stamp search warrants, it’s nice to see some professional skepticism here.

LEARNING FROM FAILURE: After VW Plant Drubbing, UAW Reconsiders Its “Southern Strategy.”

ILLEGAL COORDINATION? Sen. Jean Shaheen’s Campaign Denies Providing Material For Outside Group Ad.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: House Republicans Intensify Probe Into IRS.