This evening's music features jazz multi-instrumentalist and singer Slim Gaillard.

Here are a few stories from the post:

Obama aide: ISIS war powers language ‘intentionally’ vague

Language in President Obama's proposed authorization for use of military force (AUMF) against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is "intentionally" fuzzy, the White House acknowledged on Wednesday.

Press secretary Josh Earnest said some of the language in the bill submitted to Congress on Wednesday was not specifically defined "because we believe it's important that there aren't overly burdensome constraints that are placed on the commander in chief."

Obama "needs the flexibility to be able to respond to contingencies that emerge in a chaotic military conflict like this," Earnest argued.

The proposed legislation limits Obama from the use of “enduring offensive ground combat operations.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have questioned that provision, with Republicans saying they worry it would restrict military commanders from taking the fight to ISIS and Democrats fretting it would place no practical limits on military action.

Government wonders: What’s in your old emails?

If you’ve been remiss in cleaning out your email in-box, here’s some incentive: The federal government can read any emails that are more than six months old without a warrant.

Little known to most Americans, ambiguous language in a communications law passed in 1986 extends Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure only to electronic communications sent or received fewer than 180 days ago.

The language, known as the “180-day rule,” allows government officials to treat any emails, text messages or documents stored on remote servers – popularly known as the cloud – as “abandoned” and therefore accessible using administrative subpoena power, a tactic that critics say circumvents due process.

As you rush to purge your Gmail and Dropbox accounts, however, be forewarned that even deleted files still could be fair game as long as copies exist on a third-party server somewhere.

“The government is essentially using an arcane loophole to breach the privacy rights of Americans,” Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas said. “They couldn’t kick down your door and seize the documents on your desk, but they could send a request to Google and ask for all the documents that are in your Gmail account. ... Bipartisan legislation introduced earlier this month by Yoder and Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat, would require government agencies and law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause.

Ukraine ceasefire aims to pave way for comprehensive settlement of crisis

A ceasefire in eastern Ukraine intended to pave the way for a comprehensive political settlement of the country’s crisis has been agreed in Minsk following a fraught 16 hours of overnight negotiations between the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France. ...

The agreement is clearly fragile. Previous attempts at a truce have utterly failed, and expectations are high of an upsurge in fighting before the 15 February deadline, particularly around the strategic node of Debaltseve, a railway hub held by thousands of Ukrainian troops besieged by the pro-Russia rebel forces. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, demanded that the surrounded Ukrainian forces lay down their arms.

The main points of the agreement are:

• Ceasefire to begin at 00.00am local time on 15 February
• Heavy weapons to be withdrawn in a two-week period starting from 17 February
• Amnesty for prisoners involved in fighting
• Withdrawal of all foreign militias from Ukrainian territory and the disarmament of all illegal groups
• Lifting of restrictions in rebel-controlled areas of Ukraine
• Decentralisation for rebel regions by the end of 2015
• Ukrainian control of the border with Russia by the end of 2015

In European concessions to Putin, the Russian leader was told he would be party to negotiations over the detail and impact of Ukraine’s free trade agreement with the EU; a number of conditions have been attached to the special rights to be granted to the pro-Russia territories; central government funding of social and welfare benefits is to be restored to pro-Russia areas; and Germany and France promised to facilitate financial transfers and repair the broken banking system.

Greek debt talks with eurozone end without breakthrough

Talks between Greece and its creditors in the 19-country eurozone broke down Thursday without agreement or even a plan of action on how to move forward on the country's debts and bailout. ...

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the eurogroup of finance ministers, said detailed proposals weren't even discussed, adding that there wasn't enough common ground to chart the road to the next meeting. ...

Not deterred by the failure to agree to a new plan, Greece's finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, laid out the hope that progress could be made at Monday's meeting.

"We had a very constructive and extensive discussion of all the facets of the Greek crisis and the way in which the eurogroup can facilitate the transition to a new phase in the history of the Greek social economy so we overcome the debt deflationary crisis, the humanitarian crisis and so on," Varoufakis said.

I ran across this video in my reading today and found it interesting and amusing, especially considering the speaker's orientation.

EU Faces Greek Democracy in Great Euro Poker Game - UKIP Leader Nigel Farage