Reuters

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Here are five stories you should be reading Friday.

Obama slams GOP on immigration: President Barack Obama said Republicans are committing political suicide and risking the support of an entire generation by opposing an overhaul of immigration laws. Speaking Thursday night at a town hall in Santa Monica, Calif., Obama said it’s “anyone’s guess” how Republicans are thinking about the issue, which is hung up in the divided Congress. “If they were thinking long-term politically, it is suicide for them not to do this,” Obama said, according to CNN. Obama repeated a vow to sign an order making changes to the U.S. immigration system after the Nov. 4 midterm elections.

‘Raw politics’: Republicans were taking the White House to task even before Obama spoke in California. House Speaker John Boehner and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte accused Obama of “raw politics” for delaying the immigration orders until after Election Day. As the Hill writes, the two seized on a recent comment from White House press secretary Josh Earnest that the decision to delay action until after the midterms was due to concerns Republicans would use the issue as political fodder. And they bashed his planned unilateral moves. “By taking unilateral action on immigration, President Obama will inject serious constitutional questions into an already heated debate,” they wrote.

Goodbye, Guantanamo? The Wall Street Journal reports the White House is drafting options to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by overriding a congressional ban on bringing detainees to the U.S. The move would be the latest and potentially most dramatic use of executive power by Obama in his second term, the Journal says. Lawmakers have repeatedly barred the transfer of detainees to the U.S. Obama said in his 2014 State of the Union address that “this needs to be the year Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.” Obama now expects to miss that deadline.

‘Ditch the sequester’: The drumbeat about replacing the across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester is getting louder from the White House. John Podesta, counselor to President Obama, writes in the Washington Post that the cuts “utterly failed” at getting Congress to compromise on fiscal matters, and they simply serve as a drag on the economy. Earlier this week, Obama urged a deal on the sequester during a visit to the Pentagon.

Palin party gone wrong: There was a knockdown, drag-out affair of sucker punches, heavy drinking, bloody mouths and more at an Alaska birthday party last month involving Sarah Palin’s family. USA Today has details about the Sept. 6 incident, which former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has largely remained quiet about. Among the details in the police report is Palin’s daughter Bristol appearing “heavily intoxicated and upset” and being “knocked to the ground by the owner of the house” where the party took place.