HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Skills and bills: What state governors have to say about vocational education.

SAD NEWS: Knoxville’s Back Door Tavern closes its doors. I remember when Deana Carter tended bar there, before she made it big.

INDONESIA MAY CONDUCT JOINT PATROLS WITH AUSTRALIA IN SOUTH CHINA SEA: Beijing’s “artificial island imperialism” continues to get push back.

Indonesia is talking softly, but just mentioning joint military patrols indicates Jakarta is upset.

Indonesia President Joko Widodo will discuss the prospect of joint patrols with Australia in the South China Sea when he meets his counterpart Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the weekend.

Widodo told The Australian newspaper he would like to see joint patrols with Australia, but only if did not further inflame tensions with China.

“If there is no tension I think it’s very important to have the patrols together. We will discuss this with PM Turnbull,” said Widodo.

Indonesia has traditionally taken a neutral position on the South China Sea, acting as a buffer between China and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that have the most at stake, the Philippines and Vietnam.

But after China angered Indonesia by saying the two countries had “overlapping claims” to waters close to Indonesia’s Natuna Islands, Jakarta staged large-scale exercise on the edge of South China Sea in October.

Here’s some background on the “slow invasion.”

RELATED: This post from last year explains why the The U.S. Third Fleet’s operating area has expanded. The USS Carl Vinson is conducting operations in the South China Sea and remains under Third Fleet command.

CLAUDIA ROSETT ON TRUTH, TERROR AND NIKKI HALEY’S CHALLENGE AT THE UN.

Given its infamous — and entirely deserved — reputation as a wretched hive of scum and villainy, the UN is arguably an even worse swamp to drain than DC.

MARK RIPPETOE: Strength Training For People My Age.

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Is Chelsea Clinton Donald Trump’s most formidable Twitter foe?

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS: The ‘Factual Feminist’ debunks stats about sexual assault and the wage gap. “As a feminist and an academic, I felt the need to set things right.”

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Teacher, 28, ‘Gang Raped By 9 Iraqi Immigrants In Vienna Attack.’

HMM: The Race For Autonomous Cars Is Over. Silicon Valley Lost.

AT AMAZON, save on bestselling Cellphones and Accessories.

Plus, deals on Wheels and Tires.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Government can’t get us off sugar: Policies promoting sugar, in no small part, got us into this mess.

SPACE: Finish Line Looms for Google Lunar XPrize Finalists.

IRAQ SUICIDE BOMBER WAS A FORMER GITMO DETAINEE: Family members identified Abu-Zakariya al-Britani as the suicide bomber who attacked a military base in Mosul this past week. He was released from Guantanamo in 2004.

I FIND THIS EASY TO BELIEVE: Bad Hospital Design Is Making Us Sicker. And I can second the bit about noise and sleep disturbance.

HEALTH: One of the Biggest Myths About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Just Got Debunked: Chronic fatigue IS a real disease.

BRIDGET JOHNSON REPORTS FROM CPAC: Gov. Scott Walker Compares Today’s ‘Angry Mobs’ to 2011 Wisconsin Protesters.

VIDEO: Stare into the Abyss of the Mesmerizing ‘Glory Hole’ Spillway.

OF COURSE IT DOES: Media Ignores Disturbing Alliance Between ‘Progressives’ and Anti-Semites.

ROGER SIMON: “Is there a twisted confluence between accusing Donald Trump of non-existent anti-Semitism and ignoring Keith Ellison’s years of actually enabling the same?”

IN THE AGE OF TRUMP, APOCALYPTIC RHETORIC BECOMES MAINSTREAM.

You went full John Birch Society, leftists. Never go full John Birch Society.

But as Charles Cooke asked the left early last year, during Trump’s ascendency in the GOP primaries, “Has Donald Trump’s remarkable rise done anything to change your mind as to the ideal strength of the State?”

Speaking of which:

DISPATCHES FROM THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY:  Witches Unite To Cast Spell Against Donald Trump.

Related: “These days, the left has no moral high ground over the religious right. In fact, I’d take a conservative Christian over a demon-haunted leftist any day, because at least conservative Christians admit that their beliefs are faith-based. They don’t go around screaming ‘science! science! science!’ while drinking sacrificial goats’ blood Santeria-style because the rain gods are angry.”

I SAW THE BEST MINDS OF MY GENERATION DESTROYED BY TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, STARVING HYSTERICAL NAKED, DRAGGING THEMSELVES THROUGH THE TRANSGENDERED BATHROOMS AT DAWN LOOKING FOR AN ANGRY FIX. Billionaire Democrat Party Donor J.B. Pritzker: Protest Trump use the other gender’s bathroom today.

ASHE SCHOW: Due process defenders back Education Department critic to lead Office for Civil Rights.

Critics and supporters alike are wondering who might be the next person to lead the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which has overseen in recent years an expansion of responsibilities related to campus sexual assault.

One name being pushed as a nominee is Gail Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego and a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Heriot has been a critic of OCR’s overreach, even joining fellow Civil Rights commission member Peter Kirsanow in writing a letter to Congress opposing a budget increase for the department.

“[W]e have noticed a disturbing pattern of disregard for the rule of law at OCR,” the two wrote in the letter. “That office has all-too-often been willing to define perfectly legal conduct as unlawful.”

Heriot and Kirsanow added that OCR was only “under-funded” because it had given itself additional responsibilities. “Increasing OCR’s budget would in effect reward the agency for frequently over-stepping the law. It also would provide OCR with additional resources to undertake more ill-considered initiatives for which it lacks authority,” they wrote.

Heriot and Kirsanow argued that OCR’s 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, which greatly expanded the office’s role in combating an alleged epidemic of campus sexual assault, created a dangerous situation for accused students by requiring schools to adopt a low “preponderance of evidence” standard.

“[G]iven the importance of safeguarding the rights of accused students, the ‘clear and convincing’ standard would seem to be the more appropriate one in at least some situations,” the two wrote.

A group dedicated to the rights of accused students sent a letter to the Trump transition team after the election in support of Heriot to lead OCR. The letter, written by a group called Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), was sent with more than 240 signatures supporting Heriot and was published last week.

Although I’ve pushed Robert Shibley of FIRE for this position, I’d also be quite happy with Gail Heriot.

TRANSPARENCY: #CNNLeaks: Project Veritas Releases Over 100 Hours of Audio From Inside CNN.

More at CNNLeaks.com.