10 things you need to know today: January 14, 2015

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1. First post-attack Charlie Hebdo issue sells out
2. Deficit shrinks to its smallest since 2007
3. Al Qaeda group in Yemen claims it planned Charlie Hebdo massacre
4. Vietnam vet with PTSD executed in Georgia
5. GOP congressman apologizes, saying he didn't mean to compare Obama to Hitler
6. More U.S. jobs are available than at any time since 2001
7. France extends anti-ISIS airstrikes in Iraq
8. EPA proposes cutting methane leaks to curb global warming
9. Bartender accused of plotting to poison Boehner
10. Ousted Today host Ann Curry to leave NBC

last updated 23 January 2015

1. First post-attack Charlie Hebdo issue sells out

The first issue of Charlie Hebdo printed since the terrorist attack on the satirical magazine's Paris offices last week sold out in minutes Wednesday morning. About 500,000 copies were distributed on Wednesday, up from Charlie Hebdo's normal circulation of 60,000. Another 500,000 copies will be released on Thursday, with an eventual print run of three million. The issue's cover features a weeping Prophet Mohammad holding a sign reading, "Je suis Charlie," sparking objections from Islamic leaders and threats of further violence from extremists.

The 2014 federal deficit was the smallest since 2007, thanks partly to a $2 billion surplus posted by the U.S. Treasury in December. The deficit for the calendar year totaled $488 billion, down from $560 billion the year before. The annual deficits from 2009 to 2012, in President Obama's first term, exceeded $1 trillion. Rising payroll employment combined with spending caps have helped reduce the budget gap. The deficit was three percent of GDP in 2014, less than the average since the 1980s.

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Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen on Wednesday claimed responsibility for last week's attack on the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 people dead, including four of the magazine's cartoonists. The group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said in a statement posted online that the attack was "vengeance for the messenger of Allah." Charlie Hebdo has published cartoons lampooning Islamists and featuring depictions of the Prophet Muhammad that offend many Muslims.

A decorated Vietnam veteran convicted of murdering a sheriff's deputy in 1998 was put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday in the first U.S. execution of 2015. Lawyers for the condemned inmate — Andrew Brannan, 66 — had asked the courts to spare his life because he suffered from combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, and his mental health issues had not been adequately explained to the jury. Brannan was sentenced to death for shooting Laurens County Sheriff's Deputy Kyle Dinkheller, 22, nine times during a traffic stop.

Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) apologized on Tuesday for a tweet that compared President Obama unfavorably to Adolf Hitler. The apology came after Weber, a hardline conservative, criticized Obama for failing to join 40 world leaders and an estimated 1.5 million others at a Paris unity march after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack, saying, "Even Adolph Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris." Weber said he hadn't meant to trivialize the Holocaust, or compare Obama to Hitler.

Job openings in the U.S. rose to a 14-year high in November, the Labor Department said Tuesday. The 2.9 percent increase to 4.97 million advertised jobs suggested that U.S. employers who went on a hiring spree in 2014 are continuing to add staff due to signs that the economy is improving. With the number of positions to fill rising, employers will be coming under increasing pressure to raise wages, economists said.

French lawmakers on Tuesday approved extending airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq. On the same day, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that he would push for increased surveillance of convicted extremists at home in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks that killed 17 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery. French police officials said they were hunting for several possible financial backers of the three gunmen.

The Obama administration on Wednesday announced a plan to fight climate change by slashing methane leaks from oil and gas drilling by 40 to 45 percent by 2025. The Environmental Protection Agency's new rules will take effect in 2016 and should reach the targeted reductions by 2025. Up to 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are from methane, and that number is expected to rise as domestic oil and gas production increases.

An Ohio bartender, Michael Hoyt, has been charged with threatening to kill House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), according to court documents made available on Tuesday. Hoyt served Boehner at the Wetherington Country Club, where Boehner reportedly is a member. Hoyt was questioned by police last fall after he called 911. He told an officer he had been fired from his job, "and did not have time to put something in John Boehner's drink." Hoyt thought Boehner had been mean to him, and was responsible for Ebola, the court paper said.

Ex-Today-show host Ann Curry, who was ousted from the program in 2012, will be leaving NBC for good, the New York Post reported Tuesday. The deal, which NBC is expected to announce any time, took weeks to negotiate. The network faced a PR backlash after dismissing Curry, 58, from Today. Curry stayed on with her $12 million contract, but reportedly is ready to leave. "Ann has been unhappy for a long time because she's basically doing nothing," an NBC source said, "while NBC is unhappy that she has been paid a lot of money to do nothing."

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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.