Vox Sentences: It just got easier to go to Cuba

1. Smoking Cubanos with Castro in cabanas

A sign indicates the ABC Charters American Airlines flight to Havana, Cuba at Miami International Airport on December 19, 2014 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

• New rules on traveling to Cuba take effect tomorrow.

  [NYT / Peter Baker and Randal Archibold]

• While you still need a specific reason to go, you don't need a special license, and airlines providing flights don't need special licenses either.

• A senior Obama administration official says you'll probably be able to buy tickets to Cuba online soon.

  [Washington Post / Roberto Ferdman]

• The 12 allowed visit categories include: journalistic trips, educational activities, religious activities, family visits, public performances, and "support for the Cuban people."

  [Slate / Ben Mathis-Lilley]

• But some, like Cuba expert Julia Sweig, argue the rules could end up de facto legalizing regular tourism.

  [NYT / Peter Baker and Randal Archibold]

• You can read the basics of the overall Cuba deal — including non-travel provisions — here.

  [Vox / Amanda Taub]

• Cuba has released all 53 political prisoners it promised to let free as part of the deal.

  [CNN / Dana Ford and Juan Carlos Lopez]

2. Prepping for SOTU

Obama's 2014 State of the Union. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Obama reportedly will call for an almost 7 percent increase in discretionary spending at Tuesday's State of the Union address.

  [Bloomberg / Jonathan Allen and Anthony Capaccio]

• Discretionary spending is all federal spending not on "mandatory" programs like Social Security, Medicare, or food stamps.

• The biggest category is defense spending, but things like the National Institutes of Health, Pell Grants, Section 8 housing vouchers, the FBI and other federal law enforcement, NASA, and foreign aid are also discretionary.

  [CBPP]

• Defense spending has fallen recently, but non-defense discretionary spending has taken a massive hit: we spend less on it as a share of the economy than we have in over 50 years.

  [CBPP / David Reich]

• Obama, reportedly, wants to boost both defense and non-defense sepnding by $34 billion a year.

  [Bloomberg / Jonathan Allen and Anthony Capaccio]

• Sen. Jodi Ernst (R-IA) has been selected as the GOP respondent to the State of the Union.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

3. Misc.

• Artificial intelligence-assisted magic tricks are a thing.

  [Slate / Lind Rodriguez McRobbie]

• Meet the Panama Unit, an anti-drug law enforcement task force on the Mexican border that became a major drug-theft ring.

  [Rolling Stone / Josh Eells]

• Public financing of campaigns decreases interest group influence — but increases political polarization.

  [Washington Post / John Sides]

• The poorest 20 percent of Americans pay twice as much, percentage-wise, in state and local taxes as the top one percent.

  [Slate / Elliott Hannon]

• A few things philosopher Peter Singer believes: eating meat is unethical, we're obligated to give as much as we can to charity, and … surfing is awesome.

  [Project Syndicate / Peter Singer]

4. Verbatim

• "More than half of the 79 kids who killed themselves at juvenile facilities over a five year period did so while in 'room confinement.' [i.e. solitary confinement]"

  [

  • "[Economist Jacob] Vigdor found no evidence that poor people moved out of gentrifying neighborhoods at a higher than normal rate."

    [Slate / John Buntin]