CHANGE: Finally wanted: Police will chase thousands of fugitives.

AT AMAZON, Year-End Deals in Musical Instruments.

Also, Automotive Deals.

HISTORY: Eleanor Roosevelt Had a Carry Permit, So Why Can’t You? “The crime rate per 100,000 people has declined as carry permits have increased. In 1987, for instance, the total crime rate was 5,550 and the violent crime rate was 610. In 2013, those numbers stood at 3,099 and 368. In arming herself, Eleanor Roosevelt was ahead of the curve.”

THE INSTA-WIFE ON women’s efforts to regulate male sexuality.

READER BOOK PLUG: From reader John Lunde, Mind and Process: Why free will and physics both work. $2.99 on Kindle.

FRUITS OF “ONE CHILD:” China Needs Women!

China’s vast population of unmarried men is sure to pose an array of challenges for China, and perhaps its neighbors, for decades to come. What’s already clear is that fraudulent mail-order wives are only the start of a much larger problem. . . . Of course, social expectations aren’t just confined to boys. In China, daughters are expected to marry up — and in a country where men far outnumber women, the opportunities to do so are excellent, especially in the cities to which so many of China’s rural women move. The result is that bride prices — essentially dowries paid to the families of daughters — are rising, especially in the countryside. One 2011 study on bride prices found that they’d increased seventy-fold between the 1960s and 1990s in just one representative, rural hamlet. It’s a society-wide problem, but particularly in China’s countryside, where sex ratios are much wider, and the lack of affluence drives out young, marriageable women. These twin factors have given rise to what’s widely known as “bachelor villages” — thousands of small towns and hamlets across China overflowing with single men, with few women.

Sounds like a recipe for unrest.

STEVEN PINKER: DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY! The World Is Not Falling Apart: Never mind the headlines. We’ve never lived in such peaceful times.

YOU’VE GOT A WEDDING? BIG DEAL. OBAMA’S GOT A GOLF GAME: Obama’s golf game boots bride and groom from Hawaii wedding. “The lovebirds were set to wed Sunday at the Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course, located on the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, until they learned Obama had his eye on the same course and they would need to find a new spot for their nuptials.”

ASHE SCHOW: What Common Core and campus sexual assault policies have in common.

ARE WE MOVING FROM “PROTEST” TO FOURTH-GENERATION WARFARE? LAPD: 2nd suspect who fired at patrol car remains at large. Similar event in North Carolina.

UPDATE: More here.

PROFESSOR JACOBSON: Will Elizabeth Warren sell ‘outside the bubble’? Her 2014 campaign trail victories were few.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Politicians benefit from American tribal warfare: Self-serving lawmakers and unions get a boost from aggravating racial tensions.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 599.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Crime As Politics.

CHANGE: Chinese-Backed Canal Gets Underway in Nicaragua.

Chinese investors broke ground on the Nicaragua Canal this week. The hasty opening fulfills chief investor Wang Jing’s promise that construction would start by the close of this year, even though the project’s core problems have not yet been resolved. . . .

China has a long-term goal to increase its soft power in Latin America and the Caribbean, but that’s not all bad from the American point of view. As we’ve said before, Chinese foreign investment will help a region where governments are sometimes shaky and poverty and crime rates still high; a healthier Latin America, both economically and politically, is very much in our interest. Nicaragua is the second-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere: the more investment here, the better.

Well, possibly.

5200 DAYS IN SPACE: Why We Still Need Astronauts.

AT AMAZON, fresh Year-End Deals. Browse and save!

Plus, deals on the Best Music of 2014.

Also, today only at Amazon: Up to 50% Off Select Electronics Accessories. Laptop backpacks, bluetooth speakers, mobile keyboards and more.

And, also today only: Up to 69% Off Select BBC Series.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Politicians benefit from American tribal warfare: Self-serving lawmakers and unions get a boost from aggravating racial tensions.

THE HILL: Obama’s ‘Pen and Phone’ Barrage.

It’s been the year of the “pen and phone” for President Obama.

Obama in January declared his intent to use executive power to enact policy changes without Congress, and he has lived up to his promise, making aggressive moves on climate change, immigration, land protections and the minimum wage.

Obama knew he would have to rely on executive action given Republican control of Congress, and he has raced through 2014 to get as much done as possible.

The pace has only picked up since the midterm elections, with big announcements on immigration, climate change and foreign policy with Cuba.

“He’s pushing every executive power to the limit,” said Robert Cresanti, executive vice president of government relations at the International Franchise Association.

If Bush had done this, it would have been reported differently.