Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Loretta Lynch launches an investigation of the Chicago PD, another study confirms that “women-influenced” companies outperform the competition, and Fortune unveils the year’s Best in Business. Enjoy your Tuesday.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
•A heck of a year. Fortune's Best in Business2015 takes a look at the highs—and lows—of this remarkable year, including hat tips to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pop phenom Taylor Swift, former DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman, the U.S. women's soccer team, and many more. Fortune
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
•Tackling corporate taxes. This Wednesday, Hillary Clinton is expected to propose a new “exit tax," targeting corporate inversions that help companies dodge U.S. taxes by moving overseas. Fortune
•Can't say I'm surprised. A new report finds that companies with three or more female board members—or a female CEO and at least one other female director—performed 36% better in terms of return on equity than those that didn’t. Fortune
•Le Pen leads. The National Front has won the first round of regional elections in France, making Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right party, one of the most powerful people in the nation and leaving the more mainstream parties scrambling for a way to stop her rise. New York Times
•A hairy campaign. IBM pulled the plug on #HackAHairDryer, a campaign intended to get more women interested in science by asking them to re-engineer hair dryers. The response followed social media users accusing Big Blue of sexism and propagating gender stereotypes. WSJ
•A shoe-in. Shoes of Prey, an on-demand customized shoe retailer co-founded by Jodie Fox, has raised $15.5 million from a syndicate of investors that includes Nordstrom. Fortune
•Justice for Chicago? In the wake of a video showing the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that the Justice Department will investigate whether Chicago's police department is guilty of a pattern of deadly violence against African-Americans. The Guardian
•Facing down the Fed. Hélène Rey, a professor at the London Business School, says that emerging markets are largely powerless to cope with the impact of Fed policies on global markets. She is pushing for regulations to reduce the intensity of global capital flows—a stance that appears to be gaining traction with other economists. New York Times
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Jacqueline Reseshas been appointed to the board of Wrap Media, a mobile storytelling and commerce platform. Reses currently leads Square Capital and was previously chief development officer at Yahoo.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
•Latvia loses a leader. Laimdota Straujuma, Latvia’s first female prime minister, says she is resigning after less than two years in office, a move that brought down the government. New York Times
•Tanking the transition. In her final days in office, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is doing everything she can to obstruct the transition of power, including signing decrees that will drain the country's coffers and taking shots at her successor in public. New York Times
•The director's a doll. Ava DuVernay, the director of Oscar-nominated Selma, will be immortalized in the form of a new Barbie doll, with all proceeds going to charity. Fortune
•Golf puts me to sleep, too. Nicole Jeray has been a pro golfer since 1994—despite struggling with narcolepsy. Jeray talks about how she's managed to excel on the LPGA Tour despite her sleep disorder, and how she's "learned to laugh at herself when she awakens in the fairway during golf tournament rounds or on greens when it is her time to putt." New York Times
•Girls Who Game. Girls Who Code has partnered with Pixelberry Studios to create High School Story, a mobile game that stars a young girl coder. Tech Crunch
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ON MY RADAR
Student debt can hurt women more than men Bloomberg
Ronda Rousey covers ESPN: The Magazine AdWeed
Why women join ISIS Time
ClassPass releases first apparel collection with Outdoor Voices Racked
QUOTE
If you ask anything I don’t like, I’ll step around it and go on. I can take care of myself.
Actress Charlotte Rampling, responding to a journalist who was concerned about asking a potentially upsetting interview question.