Required Reading: Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012

A cycling champion has a win struck from the record and Redbox has an alternative to trying to find one of its kiosks in today's Required Reading.

Contador stripped of 2010 Tour de France win: Alberto Contador, the Spanish cyclist who won the Tour de France three times, has had his 2010 title revoked by a committee from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, reports Amy Shipley in the Washington Post. The court concluded that Contador has used the performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol, and sentenced him to a two-year ban from competition in addition to taking away his Tour win. Contador is only the second Tour champion to lose his title, after American Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 win for doping. The announcement comes days after the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles closed an investigation into doping allegations against 7-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong.

Obama reaches out to PAC: President Obama has long voiced his opposition to the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, which removed certain spending restrictions on corporations, nonprofits and unions. Politico's Glenn Thrush reports, however, that Obama's reelection campaign contacted donors Monday night, asking them to support Priorities USA Action, a super PAC founded by two former White House aides. On Monday morning, the president slammed super PACs and negative campaigning in an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer.

Thrush: "Another awkward timing issue: Last week Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), announced plans to hold hearings into whether Republican-backed super PACs had violated federal law banning coordination between super PACs and campaigns."

Netflix gets some competition: Fast Company's Aaron Carr reports that Redbox, known for its movie rental kiosks, is partnering with Verizon to launch a video stream service similar to Netflix. The service is scheduled to debut in the second half of 2012. Neither company has announced pricing or available selection of the deal. Redbox's entrance into the streaming video business has been all but assured for years, and last year rumors had circulated that Verizon had been eying a buyout of Netflix. It will be interesting to see what new ideas the partnership can bring to a market already dominated by Netflix and Hulu.