And the Golden Globe goes to The booze was flowing, Tom Hanks was cringing and things were just getting started. The Golden Globes were handed out last night, and the staff at Variety have your Complete Winners List. 
The reason for Tom’s cringe? As Katie Kilkenny of The Hollywood Reporter explains, Ricky Gervais told Hollywood to “f*** off” in his expletive-filled monologue (114,000+ shares). He also urged the winners not to make political speeches, and the winners did not listen. For example, Michelle Williams told women to vote ‘your own self-interest’ like men, as USA Today’s Cydney Henderson writes.  Also among the winners, Awkwafina, who made history as the first woman of Asian descent to win a Golden Globe for lead actress in a comedy (72,000+ shares). Read Tracy Brown at the Los Angeles Times on Awkwafina’s historic win. Tweets Shelby Grad, “History is often about little steps.... ‘I’d like to dedicate this to my dad, Wally. I told you I’d get a job, Dad.’”
‘The property of the people’ There are a lot of big stories to catch you up on today, and we’re going to start with The Hofeller Files. As NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang reports, more than a year after his death, a cache of computer files saved on the hard drives of Republican redistricting strategist Thomas Hofeller is becoming public (223,000+ shares). Hofeller’s daughter, Stephanie Hofeller, published a link to her copy of the files on Sunday and told NPR, “These are matters that concern the people and their franchise and their access to resources. This is, therefore, the property of the people.” David Beard summarizes, “She discovered her dad worked to negate the vote of Blacks and Latinos. The GOP fought hard to keep their consultant’s documents & hard drives secret. His daughter just made them public, saying Americans must see how her dad was ruining democracy.” Grant Stern says, “These files are a roadmap for the new Voting Rights Act covered districts map. SCOTUS did our democracy a major disservice by invalidating the original map. Not surprisingly, Republicans rushed to take advantage of it, and knew they were doing wrong.” The backstory John Hudson, Josh Dawsey, Shane Harris and Dan Lamothe of The Washington Post give us the inside story on the killing of Soleimani, revealing that it follows a long push from Pompeo for aggressive action against Iran, but the airstrike brings serious risks. Tweets Lamothe, “One significant factor in the decision to kill Soleimani was the ‘lockstep’ coordination between Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper, who deliberated ahead of the briefing with Trump, senior U.S. officials said.” So, as Eric Umansky tweets, “It wasn’t *just* Trump’s impulsiveness. Pompeo and SecDef Esper had been pushing to kill Soleimani for months. So we now have an impulsive president and a battle-eager cabinet.” Avi Asher-Schapiro says, “This is the most helpful Soleimani tick-tok; it fingers Pompeo & Esper as the primary advocates for the strike inside the admin, & undercuts ‘imminent strike’ narrative, revealing that Pompeo raised the assassination ‘months ago.’” What’s next Now Pompeo says Trump doesn’t plan on committing any war crimes, but as Maggie Haberman of The New York Times reports, Trump doubled down on his claim that he would target Iranian cultural sites (142,000+ shares) if Iran retaliates. Michael Powell points out, “When ISIS and the Taliban destroyed world cultural sites, the United States rightly treated as an abomination.” Trump also threatened “very big sanctions” on Iraq if American troops are forced to leave the country. “The stuff about bombing cultural sites is insane and criminal, but I also keep staring at this line, as if Trump thinks economic sanctions are some kind of overdraft fee you charge a difficult customer,” tweets Gregg Carlstrom, referring to Trump’s statement that “we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever.” Senior US officials tell CNN’s Jim Sciutto that there is widespread opposition within the Trump administration to targeting cultural sites in Iran. One would hope? But as Alex Howard notes, “Anonymous US officials claiming they oppose Trump’s threats to commit war crimes aren’t convincing.” NPR’s Scott Simon shares, “Producer Peter Breslow and I were among first western journos to see Bamiyan after Taliban destroyed the venerated Buddhas. US called the destruction of such a sacred cultural & religious site a war crime that typified the cruelty of a diabolical regime.” Meanwhile, Allan Smith of NBC News reports that Speaker Pelosi has announced that the House will vote on a war powers resolution to limit Trump’s military actions as tensions with Iran escalate. US citizens detained Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Mike Baker and Mariel Padilla of The New York Times report that dozens of Iranians and Iranian-Americans were held for hours at Washington State’s border with Canada over the weekend (74,000+ shares). Tweets Baker, “We spoke with some of them. One said agents questioned him about his father’s military service in Iran, which predated the Iranian Revolution.” “Once again detaining American citizens based on where they were born -- more grotesque and predictable behavior from this administration,” tweets Clive Thompson. Adolfo Flores, Lauren Strapagiel and Hamed Aleaziz cover the story at BuzzFeed News, US Citizens From Iran Were Stopped And Questioned By Customs And Border Patrol After A Concert In Canada. Mohammad Halbawy, a US citizen who’s half Lebanese and half white and was born and raised in Seattle, told Flores, “When I walk in, the first thing the [CBP agent] said was, ‘Yeah you picked the wrong time to travel. Haven’t you seen the news?’” Surreal 
In A Typical Trump Vacation, With a Momentous Result, The New York Times’ Haberman provides the wrap on Trump’s Mar-A-Lago holiday, writing that “the jarring juxtapositions this year seemed to highlight some central elements in the way Mr. Trump has governed: the little interest he has in planning beyond the day in front of him, his need for positive feedback and an unwillingness to modulate his behavior, whatever the circumstance.” The details: “surreal,” as Alex Wilhelm says. “A pretty stunning ticktock,” adds Danielle Tcholakian. So James Gibney has this “Modest prediction: 2020 is going to be a batshit year. Time to dust off the Lloyd Bridges GIFs from Airplane.” (Roger that.) Tenacity, immigration, lies and betrayal And now, “I wrote a book: AMERICAN OLIGARCHS: The Kushners, The Trumps, and The Marriage of Money and Power. It’s excerpted today in @NewYorker It’s a story of tenacity, immigration, lies, and betrayal. And there’s a whole lot of news in it.” The author, Andrea Bernstein, links to that New Yorker excerpt, Who Is Jared Kushner? Tweets Ilya Marritz, “For many refugees, getting to America is hard. In 1949, The Kushners were escaping the horrors of war & genocide. To improve their chances, they mis-represented their family relationships & country of origin. Amazing scoop from @AndreaWNYC.” He adds, “The article is a completely engrossing read on the family origins of one of the most powerful men in America. it's an extract of the book Andrea just completed. Read the whole thing, please.” Escape from Japan 
The details about Carlos Ghosn’s escape are pretty Hollywood blockbuster-worthy, which is why Jim Kirk offers this “Prediction: The movie version of this will win a Golden Globe.” In an exclusive for The Wall Street Journal, Nick Kostov, Mark Maremont and Rory Jones reveal, In Carlos Ghosn’s Escape, Plotters Exploited an Airport Security Hole. As Lisa Du tweets, “Crazy details in this @WSJ story about Ghosn’s planned escape via a security loophole ID'ed in Kansai Airport after months of planning, and background on the guys that helped him get out.” Sarah Nassauer calls it “A really well done, definitive look at how Ghosn escaped, aided by a regional airport security hole and pricey security experts.”  For more, you’ll want to check out the deep dive by Matthew Campbell, Brian Bremner, Kae Inoue and Ania Nussbaum of Bloomberg on Carlos Ghosn: How Nissan's Former Leader Became a Fugitive. What do we learn? For one, “It appears you can repeatedly evade security in multiple countries by being packed into a large flight case that's too big to go through the X-ray scanners. Well, and if you have a few million quid, a private jet, and some US private security operatives,” tweets Jim Waterson. Adds David Welch, “Hiring ex Green Berets, hiding in boxes, slipping past lax security. What a turnabout for Carlos Ghosn, who used to practically live on a company plane.”
Mind-blowingly horrific BBC News reports that Reynhard Sinaga, Britain’s ‘most prolific rapist,’ has been jailed for life, and as Elliot Douglas says, “I hate stories that exacerbate the stereotype that gay men are predatory. Yet — stories of horrific acts like this cannot be ignored, regardless of gender and sexuality. I hope his victims can begin to reach some kind of peace knowing he is behind bars.” For the full horrific story of Britain’s biggest-ever rape case, turn to Beth Abbit of the Manchester Evening News. Tweets Andrew Bardsley, “Huge story breaking from Manchester Crown Court. A rapist who drugged and rape raped up to 200 men who had been out in the city has become Britain’s worst rapist. The M.E.N. and in particular @BethAbbitMEN have followed the case for more than 2 yrs.” “Mind blowingly horrific. Incredible work @BethAbbitMEN,” tweets Vickie Scullard. Alexandra Rucki also praises the “Brilliant work from @BethAbbitMEN who has spent a long time covering this harrowing case.” Embed his mindset in all of us On a brighter note, don’t miss this one, which Tamala Edwards calls a “Cool story and cooler legacy.” From Angel Jennings of the Los Angeles Times, Nipsey Hussle was a bookworm. Now black men are finding inspiration in what he read. As Marisa Gerber tweets, “Nipsey was a voracious reader. After he died, a fan created a list all of the books he mentioned in interviews + songs. Soon, book clubs popped up in Oakland, NYC, DC + LA. @AngelJennings profiles the LA chapter of The Marathon Book Club.” That fan, the club’s founder Rashad Drakeford, tweets, “I want to thank @AngelJennings for treating Nipsey and our story with so much care. Angel can tell you, I was very reluctant at first but its bigger than us. The best way to honor Nipsey is to embed his mindset in all of us, and if this story could inspire that, we had to do it.” A few more - Did Jeffrey Epstein kill himself? “60 Minutes” investigates, and “Forensic expert says no,” tweets Frank Scandale. Glenn Kirschner says, “The minute Barr stepped to the cameras, w/Epstein’s body not yet cool, and tried to convince us Epstein killed himself (before ANY INVESTIGATION had been conducted) I knew this whole thing was wrong. I’m glad the 4th estate is digging into this cover-up.”
- “Good morning! I wrote about an obscure outer borough member of Congress for the cover of the latest issue of @NYMag.” For New York magazine, David Freedlander profiles someone you may have heard of: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He reveals that AOC has already changed D.C. It hasn’t changed her much.
- Writing about Larry Hogan for Washington Monthly, Eric Cortellessa wonders, Who Does Maryland’s Governor Really Work For? Sounds familiar: “A real estate developer takes high executive office, refuses to relinquish his holdings, instead has his family run the business, and executes policies that favor it. Maryland’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan,” tweets Nick Confessore.
- Sally Goldenberg shares, “For 4 months @muoiod & I looked into why NYC’s recycling record lags behind many other cities. The answers were so complex we couldn’t tell it in one story, so today begins part 1 of our 5-part series.” That’s her new series with Danielle Muoio of Politico, Wasted Potential: The consequences of New York City's recycling failure.
- At News 18, Sujit Nath reports as Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee Speaks Out on JNU Violence: Any Indian Who Cares About Nation’s Image Should be Worried.
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