10 things you need to know today: February 19, 2013

Obama pressures GOP over budget cuts, Pistorius denies murdering his girlfriend, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

Oscar Pistorius of South Africa finishes with gold in the Men's 4x100m relay T42/T46 Final at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
(Image credit: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

1. OBAMA TURNS UP PRESSURE ON GOP TO AVOID BUDGET CUTS

President Obama is scheduled to speak Tuesday on the need to avert the deep, automatic spending cuts, known as the sequester, that are due to hit in less than two weeks. Aides say Obama is trying to increase pressure on congressional Republicans to accept a Democratic plan that would temporarily block the across-the-board reductions, replacing them with more targeted cuts and new taxes on some people making more than $1 million. GOP leaders say they, too, want to avoid the cuts — enacted under a 2011 budget deal as a way to force a compromise — but warn they'll take effect if Democrats insist on a deal including new taxes. [Los Angeles Times]

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.