The roof of the Sandy Hook Fire Department with 26 stars is seen near Sandy Hook Elementary School in Sandy Hook, Connecticut January 3, 2013.
Glass Ceiling Shattered: Though it’s the 113th time a new Congress has been sworn in, the Senate is cheering a milestone today: 20% of the top legislative chamber is female. See what they had to say to Diane Sawyer and why they won’t stop until their attain their gender share of the nation’s demographics. (ABC News)
Safe But Still Shaken: The youngsters at Sandy Hook Elementary returned to classes this morning for the first time since the tragic Dec. 14 shooting that claimed the lives of 27 people. Their school is being housed in a refurbished middle school building in the neighboring town of Monroe, dubbed by police as “the safest school in America,” but without a doubt that won’t help relieve the pain of what some of the young students witnessed just two weeks ago. (TIME)
Silent Ball: We asked you to vote for the one word you’d most like to ban in 2013, and it wasn’t even close: out of 15 choices, 22% of you chose YOLO as the word that should be forbidden from the classroom — and really, the world-at-large. Sorry, Drake — you’d better start raking in those royalties now before we phase this phrase out for good. (NewsFeed)
Canine Competition: It started with the intense application process for jobs, then colleges, then private schools, kindergartens and country clubs, too. Will this trend never end? It seems not, especially in New York City’s swanky East Village, where even residents’ beloved pups face a rigorous interview for entry to the Ruff Club, an exclusive “contemporary pet care hub” — what you probably know as a doggy day care. But shh — don’t call it that — you wouldn’t want to ruffle any fur. (New York Times)
Пока (See ya), France! Legendary French actor Gerard Depardieu has been notoriously fed-up with his native country’s tax hikes, repeatedly speaking out against the 75% income tax the government wants to impose on millionaires. He already reportedly bought a house in Belgium less than a mile from the French border to evade the Parisian tax collectors, but now Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended his vodka-soaked olive branch to the actor, a popular face in Russia, offering him citizenship. (Reuters)
Make Your Tea Even Greener: Starbucks is rolling out new reusable cups nationwide starting today. The plastic cups cost $1 each and are part of the company’s plan to serve 5% of all drinks in reusable cups by 2015. Baristas will wash them out with boiling water each time a customer brings it back for a refill. But that remembering thing is always the toughest part, isn’t it? (Associated Press)
Keeping Up with Quentin: It’s no secret that Tarantino loves to stuff his movies with pop-culture references, some of them so obscure that you might want to keep Wikipedia at hand just so you don’t miss a crucial name. But now, College Humor has taken some of the stress out of the frantic encyclopedia-searching process, organizing Tarantino’s name-drops by era.