--- title: Morning Must Reads: December 11 description: Here's the New Way Colleges Are Predicting Student Grades U.S. schools are combing through years of data covering millions of grades earned by thousands of... canonical: https://time.com/3629655/morning-must-reads-december-11/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-11T13:22:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:30.282Z article:section: Politics og:title: Morning Must Reads: December 11 og:description: Here's the New Way Colleges Are Predicting Student Grades U.S. schools are combing through years of data covering millions of grades earned by thousands of... og:url: https://time.com/3629655/morning-must-reads-december-11/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Morning Must Reads: December 11 twitter:description: Here's the New Way Colleges Are Predicting Student Grades U.S. schools are combing through years of data covering millions of grades earned by thousands of... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Morning Must Reads: December 11 > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Dec 11, 2014 1:22 PM UTC  The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Dec 11, 2014 1:22 PM UTC [Here’s the New Way Colleges Are Predicting Student Grades](http://time.com/3621228/college-data-tracking-graduation-rates/) U.S. schools are combing through years of data covering millions of grades earned by thousands of former students to gauge the probability that a student will finish school, and prop up those who might not by sending academic advisers or deans to intervene [Congress Hands a Mixed Bag to Marijuana Movement](http://time.com/3628763/congress-marijuana-legalization/) The year-end spending bill gives momentum to the marijuana legalization movement, plus a painful setback [Why Uber’s Rape Scandal Is More Than a ‘Growing Pain’](http://time.com/3626143/uber-india-rape/) Uber’s breakneck growth isn’t an excuse for the controversial rideshare and taxi service’s problems, TIME’s Jack Linshi writes [White House Salutes TIME’s Person of the Year](http://time.com/3628155/ebola-time-person-of-the-year-white-house/) W.H. Press Secretary Josh Earnest congratulated Ebola responders Wednesday for being named TIME’s Person of the Year. “The President could not be prouder of the brave men and women who’ve committed themselves to this effort in a foreign land,” Earnest said [Hong Kong’s Main Democracy Protest Camp Falls](http://time.com/3629471/hong-kongs-main-democracy-protest-camp-has-fallen-after-75-days/) Authorities began clearing Hong Kong’s largest protest camp on Thursday, putting an end to a street occupation that has been a flashpoint for a bitter confrontation between pro-democracy protesters and city authorities, as well as the central government in Beijing [Dick Cheney Says Senate Torture Report Is ‘Full of Crap’](http://time.com/3629383/dick-cheney-cia-senate-torture-report/) Former Vice President Dick Cheney called the recently released report on the CIA’s use of torture after 9/11 a “terrible piece of work,” in an interview that aired on Wednesday, “We did exactly what needed to be done,” Cheney said [Ebola Rages on in Sierra Leone With Over 1,000 New Cases](http://time.com/3628837/ebola-sierra-leone-new-cases/) Sierra Leone has reported 1,319 new cases of Ebola virus infections in the last 21 days, according to WHO. The country has surpassed Liberia, which has experienced a steady decrease in cases over the last four weeks [NFL Owners Approve Revamped Personal Conduct Policy](http://time.com/3628563/nfl-personal-conduct-policy/) Owners voted to approve a revamped personal conduct policy after scrutiny for the league’s handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence scandal. Commissioner Roger Goodell had acknowledged that under the previous policy, “our penalties didn’t fit the crimes” [U.S. Support of Guns Is Up After 2012 School Shooting](http://time.com/3628997/majority-america-gun-rights-support/) Americans’ opinions on gun rights have shifted further into the “pro” column since the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, which is approaching its second anniversary this month, according to new data from the Pew Research Center [eBay Is Said to Mull Big Layoffs Ahead of PayPal Split](http://time.com/3629304/ebay-layoffs-paypal/) The online marketplace is reportedly considering a plan to lay off as much as 10% of its workforce in anticipation of its planned split with online payment processing service PayPal by mid-2015, according to a new report citing company insiders [Survey: Most Millionaires Want Hillary Clinton for President](http://time.com/3629439/millionaires-hillary-clinton-president/) Hillary Clinton polled the most votes in a new survey that asked 500 U.S. millionaires whom they would choose for President. She came in a comfortable front-runner at 31%. Second was Jeb Bush with 18%, and the remaining votes were split between seven other politicians [Bill Cosby Accuser Files Defamation Lawsuit](http://time.com/3629196/bill-cosby-tamara-green-lawsuit/) A retired California attorney who says the comedian and actor drugged and groped her more than four decades ago filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday, claiming he “impugned” her reputation and exposed her to “public contempt, ridicule, aversion or disgrace” [_Get_ TIME_’s_ _The Brief e-mail every morning in your inbox_](http://time.com/politicsemail) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3629655/morning-must-reads-december-11/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3629655/morning-must-reads-december-11/"},"headline":"Morning Must Reads: December 11","datePublished":"2014-12-11T13:22:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:30.282Z","description":"Here's the New Way Colleges Are Predicting Student Grades U.S. schools are combing through years of data covering millions of grades earned by thousands of...","url":"https://time.com/3629655/morning-must-reads-december-11/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads","Marijuana","Pot","Congress","Hong Kong","Torture Report"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/morning-must-reads/","name":"Morning Must Reads"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3629655/morning-must-reads-december-11/","name":"Morning Must Reads: December 11"}}]}] ```