ILLICIT LICIT BANKING: The IRS took millions from innocent people because of how they managed their bank accounts, Inspector General finds.

The report covers IRS cash seizures against businesses and individuals suspected of deliberately trying to avoid federal reporting requirements for large bank deposits.

In order to combat criminal activity, individuals and businesses are required to report all bank deposits greater than $10,000 to federal authorities. Intentionally splitting up large sums of cash into sub-$10,000 amounts to avoid that reporting requirement is known as “structuring,” and is illegal under the federal Bank Secrecy Act.

But many business owners engaged in perfectly legal activities may be unaware of the law. Others are covered by insurance policies that don’t cover cash losses greater than $10,000. Still others simply want to avoid extra paperwork, and keep their deposits less than $10,000 on the advice of bank employees or colleagues.

While structuring is technically a crime, it’s something of a secondary one.

The “crime” is handling your cash the way a drug dealer might, even if your business is nothing but legitimate.

KILL YOUR TELEVISION: Are We About to O.D. on Late-Night Trump Jokes?

A FOR EFFORT? Susan Rice somehow manages to make Benghazi cover-up seem minor.

What is so astonishing about the revelation that Ms. Rice was the one unmasking Donald Trump and his campaign before, during and after he won the presidency is that it doesn’t get any closer to Barack Obama himself.

Ms. Rice was Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, one of his closest aides. They spoke all the time. She worked directly for him. Here she was spying on Mr. Obama’s political enemies while in daily contact with him at the very height of the most contentious presidential election in memory. You don’t think she and the president discussed this?

The revelation that Ms. Rice was the operator behind the spying answers just one question. But it raises a thousand more.

When, exactly, did Ms. Rice start using the U.S. government’s spy operation as a weapon against Mr. Obama’s political opponents?

What conversations did she have with the president about the intel gleaned about Mr. Trump and other political enemies of Mr. Obama?

As was asked of an earlier president amid far smaller crimes: What did the president know, and when did he know it?

Indeed.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Google Is Teaching Their Ad Bots to Recognize ‘Objectionable’ Content.

PRICE, MEET DEMAND: Gillette, Bleeding Market Share, Cuts Prices of Razors.

Refills for Gillette men’s razors range from around $2 to $6 per cartridge, depending on the features, when not bought in bulk. That compares with Schick’s $2 to $2.75 per cartridge, when not bought in bulk. The cheapest Dollar Shave Club option features refills for 20-cents a cartridge.

Even as lower-cost shave clubs entered the scene, P&G continued to roll out new, pricier products, such as a razor featuring a swiveling-ball hinge that allows the blade to pivot. Last month, the company filed a patent application for a razor cartridge that heats up.

Among the items getting a price cut: cartridges for the Fusion razor that features five blades in a single head and a special trimmer on the back for hard-to-reach areas. A four-pack that was selling for around $19.50 will now go for closer to $15. On average, prices will fall by 12%, P&G says.

The best disposable shave you can get is from old-fashioned double-edge safety razors, which run from about 10¢ to 25¢ apiece and last all week.

SO IT’S COME TO THIS: Anti-Semitism at the ‘Jewish’ Forward.

FASTER, PLEASE: Carbon-based filter which turns seawater into drinking water could help millions.

Reporting their findings in the Nature Nanotechnology journal, researchers from the University of Manchester have claimed that the process of desalination – filtering salt-water to produce fresh water – could lead to cheaper filtration systems in the developing world.

They explained that by controlling the size of the pores in the membranes the team was able to filter out common salts passing through the material.

“Realization of scalable membranes with uniform pore size down to atomic scale is a significant step forward and will open new possibilities for improving the efficiency of desalination technology,” Rahul Nair, professor of material physics at the University of Manchester, said in a statement.

If I’m understanding this technology correctly, it has far wider purification applications than just desalinating seawater.

VIDEO: Bernie Sanders Says You’re Not ‘Deplorable’

Unless you’re rich or sell too many kinds of deodorant, I guess.

WHAT CHANGED? Suddenly, Media No Longer Interested in Obama Spy Story.

POTTY BREAK: NCAA Announces It Will Let N.C. Host Championships After ‘Bathroom Bill’ Repeal.

STUFF JUST GOT REAL: Susan Rice isn’t a ‘smoking gun,’ but she does have some explaining to do.

That’s WaPo’s Aaron Blake, and if The Fix is willing to even breathe the words “smoking gun,” then you can bet there’s “a fish, a barrel, and a smoking gun.”

QUESTION ASKED: The Beginning of the End of Putinism?

Putin may have cause for concern. The recent protests, complaining about corruption, are materially different in substance than the 2011 and 2012 protests that focused on election fraud, although the issues are related. The latest round of protests has taken place in a worse economic and political environment.

Moreover, the luster of the nationalism aroused by Putin’s geopolitical adventures in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere may have begun to fade as the conflicts in those regions continue and as their economic cost rises. Russia’s increased negative image in the world, and in the West in particular, may be taking its toll on the Russian polity as the effects of the corruption exposed in the Panama Papers and by the impressive investigative activity of opposition leader Alexei Navalny starts to have an impact. This is in addition to the impact of the massive Russian sports cheating scandal exposed by the WADA investigations.

Western sanctions have been meaningful but not for the purpose for which they were implemented, i.e., to reverse the annexation of Crimea. The sanctions may have helped foster the economic conditions which might over time bring about political change in Russia. Real incomes in Russia have been steadily falling for several years despite relatively stable energy prices. The number of Russians living below the poverty line has increased by 15 percent in the past two years. The number of billionaires and millionaires has increased, and evidence of their extravagant lifestyles has become increasingly available on the internet.

A corrupt and heavily centralized state has always been good for the 1%.

BEN CARSON ON TRUMP H.U.D. BUDGET: ‘Nobody’s Going to be Thrown Out on the Street’

It’s a symptom of our poisoned political atmosphere that Carson feels the need to say that.

BILL GERTZ: U.S. Ill-Prepared to Stop Widespread Russian Information Warfare.

In addition to the hacking and leaking campaign during the election, Russian intelligence agencies engaged in covert influence operations that falsely reported terrorist attacks in the United States and against the key U.S. military base in Incirlik, Turkey.

The Russian government also backed the Occupy Wall Street protest movement and trumpeted racially charged news to sow social unrest.

The federal government has been unable to stop Moscow’s propaganda and influence operations. Likewise, it has failed to counter cyber attacks aimed at stealing data or sabotaging critical networks.

“Americans should be concerned because right now a foreign country, whether they realize it or not, is pitting them against their neighbor, other political parties, ramping up divisions based on things that aren’t true,” said Clint Watts, a cyber security expert and former FBI special agent.

Russian information warfare operations seek to erode Americans’ trust in the government.

“If they can do that, if Americans don’t believe that their vote counts, they’re not going to show up to participate in democracy,” said Watts, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

There’s still no evidence that Russia “hacked” the election in any way, although high-level Clinton hand John Podesta was apparently gullible enough to fall for a phishing attack — which revealed embarrassing, but true, details about Hillary’s campaign.

As for the rest, given how much more fragile Russia’s institutions are than ours, a little tit might prevent a whole lot of future tat.

CHANGE? Trump Administration Floats Compromise on Health Care.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. and head of the conservative Freedom Caucus, called the administration’s new measure for compromise “a solid idea.”

“We remain open minded and willing to look at details for the plan, so we’re hopeful,” Meadows said after emerging from his group’s meeting with Pence Monday night. “We are encouraged by at least the idea — intrigued by the idea — but would certainly need a whole lot more information before we take action in support or opposition.”

The compromise Pence and the moderate members of the House discussed — and that Pence has taken to the conservative members on the Hill — would give states the opportunity to issue a waiver so they don’t have to impose those requirements on the condition that states show that getting rid of the insurance regulations, such as essential health benefits, will lower the cost of premiums, according to a Republican aide.

The compromise would not allow states to waive those requirements for dependents under 26 or allow an opt-out for pre-existing conditions or impose lifetime spending caps.

Most any negotiations might be an improvement over last month’s failed attempt at a fait accompli.

SYRIA: ‘Chemical attack’ in Idlib kills 58.

If you have the stomach for it, Australian reporter Sophie McNeil’s Twitter feed is filled with photos from the attack — and it certainly does look like chemical weapons were used.

EQUALITY? Now Female Students Get Suspended Over Scant Allegations.

This is not the progress I was hoping for.

SMOKING GUN? Susan Rice Ordered Spy Agencies To Produce ‘Detailed Spreadsheets’ Involving Trump.

Former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice ordered U.S. spy agencies to produce “detailed spreadsheets” of legal phone calls involving Donald Trump and his aides when he was running for president, according to former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova.

“What was produced by the intelligence community at the request of Ms. Rice were detailed spreadsheets of intercepted phone calls with unmasked Trump associates in perfectly legal conversations with individuals,” diGenova told The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group Monday.

“The overheard conversations involved no illegal activity by anybody of the Trump associates, or anyone they were speaking with,” diGenova said. “In short, the only apparent illegal activity was the unmasking of the people in the calls.”

Other knowledgeable official sources with direct knowledge and who requested anonymity confirmed to TheDCNF diGenova’s description of surveillance reports Rice ordered one year before the 2016 presidential election.

Read the whole thing.

The question now most in need of an answer is: What did the former President know, and when did he know it?

NEVER CHANGE, NYT:

Egypt’s previous authoritarian leader, Mohamed Morsi, was also a leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the praised choice of former U.S. President Barack Obama — which is something NYT reporters Peter Baker and Declan Walsh chose to omit from their story.

It would help, Messrs. Baker and Walsh, in a story about changing course, if your readers were informed what the previous course was.

STILL A FIGUTIVE: Judge rejects Roman Polanski’s bid to end sex abuse case.

Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon refused to address how Polanski would be sentenced if he returned to the U.S. after 40 years abroad. He noted that other courts, including a California appellate court, have ruled that the Oscar winner is a fugitive and must return to Los Angeles for sentencing.

“There is no sufficient or compelling basis for reconsideration of these issues,” Gordon wrote.

Polanski was charged with six felonies in 1977 after he was accused of plying a 13-year-old girl with champagne and part of a sedative pill, then raping her at actor Jack Nicholson’s house.

Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, but he fled Los Angeles on the eve of sentencing in 1978. He has sought to resolve the case several times without personally appearing in court.

It was rape-rape and Polanski did flee-flee.

ACLU: School Police Officers with Guns Send the Wrong Messages.

QUESTION ASKED: Dear CNN: Why Is A Former Obama Appointee Reporting On Susan Rice Revelation?

Just another Democrat operative with a byline.

THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: Wellmark to halt sales of individual health-insurance policies.

Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield’s decision means more than 21,000 Iowans who bought health-insurance policies from the company in the past three years will need to find another carrier — and it’s not clear all of those people will have another choice.

Wellmark President John Forsyth said his company’s decision was painful but necessary, because the carrier had lost $90 million over three years covering that group of people.

“We’re an Iowa company, we’re here for Iowans, we want to do the right thing for Iowans, but we can’t allow a small subset to put the broader group in jeopardy,” he said in an interview Monday.

Forsyth said the overall problem is too few healthy, young consumers are buying health insurance.

Say it with me now: “Unexpectedly.”

BUT OF COURSE: If Ivanka Trump Were A Democrat, She’d Be A Feminist Hero.

In addition to allegations of fake feminism, Ivanka faces charges of nepotism. Last week it was reported she would have an office in the White House and access to classified information sans a top-secret clearance or official title. This is indeed not only nepotism but stupid. If President Obama had done this with a 35 year-old Sasha Obama, Republicans would have been crying “nepotism!” faster than Jason Bourne can shimmy into a SCIF. That said, it’s not as if this hasn’t happened in previous administrations (looking at you, Bill Clinton, circa 1990s).

This brings me to Chelsea Clinton. Before Ivanka was the president’s daughter, she was heralded as an intelligent woman, a dedicated wife and mother, and a businesswoman with a burgeoning clothing line. Yet in a recent Fast Company longread, editor Anjali Mullany writes:

Ivanka has built her business on a brand platform that champions working women, so why is calm, polite Ivanka supporting an unpredictable and combative candidate so many professional woman have accused of sexual harassment, they wonder? Is the root of her loyalty pure filial duty? Does she support him because he’s rich (though how rich is anyone’s guess?) Because she suffers from a form of Stockholm Syndrome? Because the exposure is good for her business? Because deep down, she’s actually just like him? Because of her stated reason: that she truly believes he’s the best man for the job?

Compare that to this glowing review in The Atlantic of Chelsea Clinton, the daughter not only of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton but President Bill Clinton, who was impeached for perjury related to sexual misconduct, and both of whose lifelong political careers have been constantly dogged with scandal.

To be fair, it’s different when they do it.

OFTEN, AND WITH GUSTO? How to Drink Wine the Right Way, According to Science.