The Commentariat -- March 31, 2013

Ashley Parker & Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "The nation’s top business and labor groups have reached an agreement on a guest worker program for low-skilled immigrants, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said on Saturday. The deal clears the path for broad immigration legislation to be introduced when Congress returns from its two-week recess in mid-April." ...

... Mike Allen of Politico: "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) issued an Easter morning statement saying he is 'encouraged' by progress in talks on immigration reform, but added: 'Reports that the bipartisan group of eight senators have agreed on a legislative proposal are premature.' The headline of his statement, timed for release just before the Sunday talk shows: "Rubio: No final agreement on immigration legislation yet.'" CW: wherein "premature" means "failed to give me, Marco, a photo-op."

So David Stockman, the boy wonder who brought us "trickle-down economics" & grew up to regret it, has an op-ed in today's New York Times with an extraordinary doom-and-gloom prophecy: within a few years, I predict -- this latest Wall Street bubble, inflated by an egregious flood of phony money from the Federal Reserve rather than real economic gains, will explode, too.... These policies have brought America to an end-stage metastasis." CW: I hope Krugman responds, because otherwise I won't know what to make of Stockman's piece. ...

... Some of Stockman's "villains" and "heroes." ...

... Oh, Stockman has a book on the self-same subject. Marcus Brauchli, a vice president of The Washington Post Co., reviews it in the Post.

Maureen Dowd: "On Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts played Karl Rove, musing not about moral imperatives but political momentum.... Congress has passed no federal protections for gays on employment, housing and education. In 29 states, it is perfectly legal to fire someone because of his or her sexual orientation. The F.B.I. says the only uptick in hate crimes involves attacks on gays. Thirty-one states have enacted Constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage.... The Supreme Court should know that civil rights are not supposed to be determined on the whims of the people."

Jonathan Bernstein argues in Salon that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg should retire now if she wants to be replaced by a liberal. With it likely that Republicans will pick up seats -- if not control -- the Senate in the 2014 election, & "most Republicans will support a filibuster against any [Democratic] Supreme Court nominee." CW: Harry Reid should announce next week that filibustering all judicial nominees is over.

After reading Charlotte & Harriet Childress's WashPo op-ed (linked yesterday) on white male mass murderers, Steve M. of No More Mr. Nice Blog writes, "White suburban males are led to believe that the world is their oyster. Maybe it's falling short of these high cultural expectations that attracts a certain percentage of socially struggling white males to fantasies of violent revenge. They want to kill because they're expected to dominate, and this is the only way they know how."

Kate M. proposes strategic U.S. war plan: "North Korean officers could be easily defeated with a giant magnet." Sorry, Kate, a practical idea, but not enough in it for military contractors.Right Wing War on Easter Outrage. Twitchy (which is a Michelle Malkin production) reports: "While two billion Christians around the world celebrate Easter Sunday on this 31st day of March, Google is using its famous 'Doodle' search logo art to mark the birth of left-wing labor leader Cesar Chavez." AND much of Right Wing World is aghast. CW: because commemorating the life of a real, home-grown defender of the poor is so much worse than celebrating one who is apt to be entirely mythical. Also, the mythical dude just doesn't get enough attention.

Your 2013 Easter Miracle. Lizzy Davies of the Guardian: "The shroud of Turin is to be shown on television for the first time in 40 years on Easter Saturday as a new claim [is made] that the four-metre-long linen cloth dates from ancient times.... As what the Vatican described as his parting gift to the Roman Catholic church before he resigned, Benedict XVI signed off on a special 90-minute broadcast of the shroud that will take place from Turin Cathedral and be introduced in a brief preamble by his successor, Pope Francis.... Giulio Fanti ... [of] Padua University claims tests had shown that the cloth, which bears the image of a man's face and body, dates from between 280BC and 220AD."

Looks lie Pope Francis is planning to undo all of Benedict's "reforms." The AP reports, "Virtually everything he has done since being elected pope, every gesture, every decision, has rankled traditionalists in one way or another." Too bad.

Local News

Happy Easter! Steve Benen: the Kentucky legislature overrode Gov. Steve Beshear's (D) veto of a bill that will allow "Kentuckians with 'sincerely held' religious beliefs to disregard state laws and regulations." What could possibly go wrong?

Rosalind Helderman & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post have a long report on Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's cozy, symbiotic relationship with a shaky Virginia company that makes some kind of (likely fake) dietary supplement made from tobacco. AND here's a shocking surprise: Kate M.'s ward Little Kenny Cuccinelli is tagging along on the back of the huckster's bandwagon. Politics makes perfectly predictable bedfellows.

GOP Outreach in North Carolina, Part 1. Laura Leslie of WRAL, Raleigh: "Two bills filed by Republican lawmakers seek to cut back early voting and eliminate same-day registration in North Carolina.... Democrats say such bills are intended to make it harder to vote and will disproportionately affect low-income, working and minority voters -- groups that traditionally favor Democrats. The Sunday ban, in particular, would affect popular 'Souls to the Polls' voting drives at African-American churches." ...

... GOP Outreach in North Carolina, Part 2. Michael Biesecker of TPM: "A Confederate battle flag hung inside the old North Carolina State Capitol last week to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War is being taken down after civil rights leaders raised concerns. The decision was announced ... hours after the Associated Press published a story about the flag, which officials said was part of an historical display intended to replicate how the antebellum building appeared in 1863. The flag had been planned to hang in the House chamber until April 2015, the 150th anniversary of the arrival of federal troops in Raleigh.... The decision was a quick about-face for the McCrory [R] administration, which initially defended the display." CW: even in ending it, Gov. Pat McCrory's office made a fake excuse about needing the venue for office space. ...

... CW: to be fair to the Republican National Committee, I don't think they said much about reaching out to blah people.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Paul Williams, a writer and critic who founded the alternative pop music magazine Crawdaddy, one of the first outlets for serious writing about rock music, and whose critical support helped rescue the science fiction author Philip K. Dick from obscurity, died on Wednesday in a nursing residence near his home in Encinitas, Calif. He was 64."

AP: "A Texas prosecutor and his wife were found killed in their house two months after one of his assistants was gunned down near their office.... Investigators found the bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, on Saturday, said Kaufman County sheriff's Lt. Justin Lewis.... Assistant district attorney Mark Hasse was shot to death in a parking lot a block from his office on Jan. 31." ...

... Reuters: investigators are looking into the possibility that the murders of the McLellands & Hasse are tied to the white supremacist killing of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements.

Reuters: "Kenyan police clashed on Sunday with a few dozen protesters angry at a court's confirmation of Uhuru Kenyatta as president-elect, but the unrest was minor compared with the nationwide bloodshed after the last disputed election."

The Commentariat -- March 30, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

Stupid President Tricks. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are reporting that President Obama is 'strongly considering' including cuts to social insurance program benefits in his budget. The budget is slated to be released on April 10, the same day Obama is having yet another charm offensive dinner with Senate Republicans." ...

... Digby: "Remember, SS doesn't contribute a dime to the deficit.... Let's be clear: this is deficit reduction on the backs of middle class workers, the elderly, the disabled and Veterans. Oh, and by the way, cutting vital programs in exchange for increasing taxes on the middle class and getting some temporary chump change from millionaires as a cover is not a balanced approach. And for those Democrats like me who backed the health care reform because of the Medicaid expansion, well we really are a bunch of suckers.... If he's looking to cut Medicaid now, I guess we can assume that the only part of that legacy he cares about is the one that benefits the private insurers." ...

... "If Only the Czar Knew." Susie Madrak wants you to call the White House. "The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414, the comments line is 202-456-1111." Read her post, too. ...

... Kevin Freking of the AP: "Veterans groups are rallying to fight any proposal to change disability payments as the federal government attempts to address its long-term debt problem. They say they've sacrificed already. Government benefits are adjusted according to inflation, and President Barack Obama has endorsed using a slightly different measure of inflation to calculate Social Security benefits. Benefits would still grow but at a slower rate."

President Obama spoke about infrastructure & the economy yesterday:

The New Yorker's Jeffery Toobin & Margaret Talbot talk with Dorothy Wickenden about how the Supreme Court hearings on the gay marriage cases, how the Court might rule, and "what the decisions could mean for marriage equality":

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... it would seem the conservative members of the court, making a calculation that their chances of winning would not improve with time, were behind the decision to take up the [marriage equality issue]. The aha moment came on Tuesday. After Justice Anthony M. Kennedy suggested that the court should dismiss the case, Justice Antonin Scalia tipped his hand. 'It's too late for that now, isn’t it?' he said, a note of glee in his voice. 'We have crossed that river,' he said. That was a signal that it was a conservative grant." CW: you may have crossed that river, Nino, but it's your River Trebia; i.e., you lose.

Charlotte & Harriet Childress, in a Washington Post op-ed, on white men as mass murderers & enablers of mass murderers. "If life were equitable, white male gun-rights advocates would face some serious questions to assess their degree of credibility and objectivity. We would expect them to explain: What facets of white male culture create so many mass shootings? Why are so many white men and boys producing and entertaining themselves with violent video games and other media? Why do white men buy, sell and manufacture guns for profit; attend gun shows; and demonstrate for unrestricted gun access disproportionately more than people of other ethnicities or races? Why are white male congressmen leading the fight against gun control?" ...

... Dana Milbank: "Obama on guns -- too little, too late."

"GOP's Post-Election Outreach Hits Some Speed-Bumps"

Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn't matter what they are. They don't get to change the definition. -- Dr. Ben Carson, the right's favorite black person ever since he verbally attacked President Obama at a prayer breakfast ...

... Benjy Sarlin of TPM: "Students at Johns Hopkins University's medical school are circulating a petition to replace Dr. Benjamin Carson as their commencement speaker after the famed neurosurgeon linked gay marriage to pedophilia and bestiality in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity." Read the students' entire letter. ...

... Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "The co-director of Johns Hopkins University's sexuality studies program is speaking out against his colleague Dr. Ben Carson's recent comments comparing supporters of marriage equality to members of NAMBLA and practitioners of bestiality. 'I don't think most people at Hopkins think what he says on this subject matters,' Professor Todd Shepard, co-director of the university's Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, said in a statement to Media Matters. 'They make him look nasty, petty, and ill-informed. It doesn't tell us anything about his amazing abilities as a surgeon. It does remind us, however, that those abilities do not mean we should listen to what he says in any other domain.'"

... Heather of Crooks & Liars: Dr. Carson "made an appearance on Andrea Mitchell's show on MSNBC and did a really lousy job of defending them, claiming that he was 'taken out of context' and wasn't actually trying to equate all of those things." CW: Yo, Dr. Carson -- "taking words out of context" is what Andrew Breitbart did to Shirley Sherrod; it is not replaying what you said, which was what you meant.

... David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun: "Carson told the Sun, 'I've caught wind of [the students' petition] and I've sent back a message that this is their graduation, their big day, and if they think me being there is going to be a problem, I am happy to withdraw.'" He also said, "Now perhaps the examples were not the best choice of words, and I certainly apologize if I offended anyone." And stuff about the Bible.

Meredith Shiner of Roll Call: "Top Republicans, including Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, are beginning to condemn fellow GOP Rep. Don Young of Alaska for his use of a racial slur to describe Latino workers. Boehner on Friday morning demanded Young apologize for the remarks he made to a local radio station, in which he said that his father 'used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes' on their family ranch. 'Congressman Young's remarks were offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds,' Boehner said in a statement Friday. 'I don't care why he said it -- there's no excuse and it warrants an immediate apology.' Young has not apologized for his remarks. He only clarified to say that he knows 'this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect,' according to KTUU in Alaska." ...

... So then Young said he was sorrier for his "poor choice of words." CW: I'm pretty sure all this will make his a leader of the effort to find a path to citizenship for "whatever you want to call those people." You know, I finally get why certain people refer to minorities & others as "those people." It's because -- unlike Don Young -- they know better than to use the slurs they use in ordinary conversation. ...

... Jamelle Bouie: "Rep. Young’s remarks may have been unintentionally insensitive, but the fact he didn't even know the remark was insensitive itself underscores the problem. If the party were serious about making Latinos feel at home -- and didn't see outreach as mere 'tokenism' -- such outbursts would be far less likely."

More "GOP Minority Outreach." Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Republicans are continuing their minority outreach efforts this month by introducing a bill outlawing Spanish and other non-English languages from being used in federal documents. Steve King (R-IA), most recently in the headlines after attacking President Obama's young daughters for going on vacation, introduced the English Language Unity Act in the House earlier this month, along with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) in the Senate. As King notes on his website, the bill would require 'all official functions of the United States to be conducted in English.' Federal and state governments print thousands of documents every year, many of which are translated into other languages besides English. One major impact King's bill could have is to stop the decades-long practice of printing non-English ballots in areas where there's a significant non-English language group."

Gail Collins: "It's not often we stop to ask ourselves: 'What's going on with North Dakota?' But I believe this is the moment." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The clear message is the need for a stepped-up effort to hold state officials electorally accountable for policies that harm women in states where right-wing Republicans control the machinery of government."

Right Wing World

** Freeeeedom! Alex Pareene on what "freedom" means to Koch brothers-funded "intellectuals." Because this "study" quantifies what these supposed brainiacs think are the elements of freedom, the results constitute an eye-opener. Their bottom line: North Dakota -- see Gail Collins, NYT editors above -- is the tippy-top most free state, while some blue states like California & New York are virtual prisons. Which I guess means millions of people are masochists for preferring to live in CA & NY over ND -- the choice of about 2.2 percent of Americans.

Local News

Timothy Pratt of the New York Times: "... on Thursday evening, not long after the [Nevada State Legislature voted to expel him, Assemblyman Steven] Brooks was arrested near Barstow, Calif., after throwing metal objects out the window of his car during a high-speed chase, according to the Barstow police. He was being held Friday on $100,000 bail and facing four charges, including resisting an officer with force."

Sex, Sex and Videotape. Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: the clients a prostitution ring in Kennebunkport, Maine, near the Bush family summer home, included a former mayor, a high school hockey coach & a minister. All caught on tape.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Yvonne Brill, who died on Wednesday at 88 in Princeton, N.J., was also a brilliant rocket scientist, who in the early 1970s invented a propulsion system to help keep communications satellites from slipping out of their orbits. The system became the industry standard, and it was the achievement President Obama mentioned in 2011 in presenting her with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.... Mrs. Brill ... is believed to have been the only woman in the United States who was actually doing rocket science in the mid-1940s, when she worked on the first designs for an American satellite."

New York Times: "Phil Ramone, a prolific record producer and engineer who worked with some of the biggest stars of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 79."

Washington Post: "The latest round of threats exchanged by North Korea and the United States is dragging on longer and taking on a more virulent tone than in the past, provoking deep concerns among American officials and their allies." ...

... Reuters Update: "North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a 'state of war' with South Korea, but Seoul and its ally the United States played down the statement as tough talk."

AP: "U.S. special operations forces handed over their base in a strategic district of eastern Afghanistan to local Afghan special forces on Saturday, a senior U.S. commander said. The withdrawal satisfies a demand by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that U.S. forces leave the area after allegations that the Americans' Afghan counterparts committed human rights abuses there on U.S. orders." ...

... Reuters: "A NATO helicopter supporting Afghan security forces killed two children and nine suspected Taliban fighters on Saturday, officials said, a month after President Hamid Karzai forbade troops to call for foreign air support."

The AP has more on the Atlanta school test cheating scandal, linked in yesterday's Ledes.

Reuters: "Former South African President Nelson Mandela is comfortable and able to breathe without problems as he continues to respond to treatment after spending a third night in hospital for a lung infection, President Jacob Zuma's office said on Saturday."

The Commentariat -- March 29, 2013

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency will move ahead Friday with rules requiring cleaner gasoline and cars nationwide, despite fierce protests from the oil industry and some conservative Democrats, according to several individuals briefed on the matter. The proposed rules -- which had been stuck in regulatory limbo since December 2011 in the face of intense political opposition -- would cut the amount of sulfur in U.S. gasoline by two-thirds and impose fleetwide pollution limits on new vehicles by 2017."

Jon Chait of New York: Republicans are already forgetting they ever opposed gay marriage. ...

... E. J. Graff of the American Prospect writes movingly of her attendance at Wednesday's Supreme Court hearing of the DOMA case. ...

... David von Drehle in Time (cover story): gay marriage has already won. "The rise of same-sex marriage from joke to commonplace is a story of converging strands of history. Changes in law and politics, medicine and demographics, popular culture and ivory-tower scholarship all added momentum to produce widespread changes of heart." ...

... Matt Tunseth of the Chugiak-Eagle River Star: "U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski [R-Alaska] said Wednesday that her views on gay marriage are 'evolving' and that she's reviewing her stance on the issue 'very closely.'"

Michael Tomasky of Newsweek: "There is no question that it's a concerted strategy on Republicans' part to make sure that Obama leaves office having put zero judges on the [D.C. District] court." ...

... New York Times Editors: "Republicans clearly have no interest in dropping their favorite pastime [-- the filibuster --] but Democrats could put a stop to this malicious behavior by changing the Senate rules and prohibiting, at long last, all filibusters on nominations."

Paul Krugman: with the numbers refusing to back up deficit scolds, "talk of a fiscal crisis has subsided. Yet the deficit scolds haven't given up on their determination to bully the nation into slashing Social Security and Medicare. So they have a new line: We must bring down the deficit right away because it's 'generational warfare,' imposing a crippling burden on the next generation.... we're cheating our children.... by neglecting public investment and failing to provide jobs.... Our sin involves investing too little, not borrowing too much -- and the deficit scolds, for all their claims to have our children's interests at heart, are actually the bad guys in this story." ...

... Brad DeLong of UC-Berkeley: "... my conclusion is that I should stop calling the current episode the Lesser Depression. Yes, its shape is different from that of the Great Depression; but, so far at least, there is no reason to rank it any lower in the hierarchy of macroeconomic disasters." Via Greg Sargent.

Jordan Weissmann of the Atlantic: "Our food stamp rolls are eye popping, but they're not the problem. Poverty is."

President Obama spoke yesterday about saving the nation's children from gun violence:

... Jeremy Peters & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "With resistance to tougher gun laws stiffening in Congress, a visibly frustrated President Obama on Thursday implored lawmakers and the nation not to lose sight of the horrors of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn." ...

... Gene Robinson: "... it's hard for me to accept that the right to 'keep and bear arms' extends to the kind of arsenal that Adam Lanza -- and his mother, Nancy, whom he also killed -- assembled and kept in their home." See also yesterday's Ledes.

... Annie-Rose Strasser of Think Progress: "Minutes before President Obama delivered an emotional speech asking lawmakers to pass sensible gun safety measures in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, word came from Capitol Hill that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had signed onto a letter pledging to block votes on any of Obama's proposals for gun legislation."

Kevin Drum: "... conservatives sure do seem to thrive on a continuing parade of weirdly invented, personality-driven scandalettes in a way that liberals don't."

Taylor Berman of Gawker: "In an interview with local radio station KRBD, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) recalled his father's ranch and the old fashioned way things were done on it.... 'My father had a ranch. We used to hire 50 or 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,' Young said in the interview.... Young apologized later, blaming the usage on his upbringing.... Looks like the GOP's effort to reach more Latino voters is going exactly as planned." ...

... Actually, Think Progress & the Alaska Daily News note that "Young stopped short of apologizing." ...

... Charles Pierce: "You know what was a term that was commonly used during my days growing up in Central Massachusetts? 'Dickhead.' But I mean no disrespect."

Local News

Tim Egan: California is back!

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "At an emotional announcement Thursday inside Faneuil Hall, [Thomas M.] Menino slowly navigated his way up the center aisle with his wife, Angela, to the thunderous applause from official Boston as well as city workers and admirers from the neighborhoods. Over the loudspeaker, Frank Sinatra crooned his defiant anthem, 'My Way.' 'I am here with the people I love, to tell the city I love, that I will leave the job that I love,' Mr. Menino, 70, the city's longest-serving mayor, told the standing-room-only crowd of well-wishers. He said essentially that he was not up to the job, at least not the way he wanted to do it. After illnesses last year that left him hospitalized for two months, he said he could not keep up his schedule...." Boston Globe story here.

Little Kenny Is Still a Brat. Washington Post Editors: Virginia "Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) tried to take some of the credit for himself [for passage of Virginia's sweeping transportation bill].... It would be easier to credit Mr. Cuccinelli if he hadn't opposed the bill tooth-and-nail when the General Assembly considered it, condemning the legislation as a 'massive tax increase' and pushing for a right-wing alternative. It would be easier still if the attorney general didn't have a long history of opposing serious transportation policy in service to a no-tax creed.... If Mr. Cuccinelli wants to associate himself with the success of this transportation bill, he should endorse it first."

CW: In case you thought there could not be a legislator worse than Louie Gohmert or Michele Bachmann, there is -- or was -- and he's a Democrat. Laura Zuckerman of Reuters: "The Nevada State Assembly expelled Democratic Assemblyman Steven Brooks on Thursday after he was arrested twice this year, in the first time the chamber ousted a member in the history of the state legislature.... Brooks was arrested in February outside his Las Vegas home on suspicion of domestic battery and obstructing officers. Police said he had attacked a member of his family. In January, he was arrested on suspicion of leveling a death threat against the incoming Assembly speaker, Marilyn Kirkpatrick, a Democrat from North Las Vegas. Police say they found Brooks driving around with a handgun and 41 rounds of ammunition when they arrested him on January 19." ...

     ... Update: I guess Brooks is "disturbed." And trying to buy more guns.

News Ledes

New York Times: A Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury indicted former Atlanta district school superintendent Beverly Hall on charges of "racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements."

New York Times: "A mysterious malady that has been killing honeybees en masse for several years appears to have expanded drastically in the last year, commercial beekeepers say, wiping out 40 percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed to pollinate many of the nation's fruits and vegetables.... Beekeepers and some researchers say there is growing evidence that a powerful new class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, incorporated into the plants themselves, could be an important factor."

AP: "Prosecutors in the Colorado theater massacre case have rejected an offer from suspect James Holmes to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, saying the proposal can't be considered genuine because the defense has repeatedly refused to give them information needed to evaluate it. No plea agreement exists, prosecutors said in a scathing court document Thursday, and one 'is extremely unlikely based on the present information available to the prosecution.'"

Reuters: "The U.N. Security Council on Thursday approved the creation of a unique new combat force that is to carry out 'targeted offensive operations' to neutralize armed groups in conflict-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo."

Reuters: "Car bombs hit four Shi'ite mosques in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and another in Kirkuk just after prayers on Friday, tearing into crowds of worshippers and killing 17, police and witnesses said."

AP: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Friday that his rocket forces were ready 'to settle accounts with the U.S.,' unleashing a new round of bellicose rhetoric after U.S. nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions in joint military drills with South Korea." CW: bee extinction is a much greater threat to the U.S. than is North Korea.

Reuters: "The president of Cyprus said on Friday the risk of bankruptcy had been contained and the country had no intention of leaving the euro, in a speech laden with criticism of Europe's currency union for 'experimenting' with the island's fate."

AP: "A U.S. Army veteran, who boasted on Facebook of his military adventures with Syrian rebels, was charged Thursday with firing rocket propelled grenades as part of an attack led by an al-Qaida group against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction -- specifically, a rocket propelled grenade launcher -- outside the U.S."

Reuters: Michael Steinberg, a portfolio manager at SAC Capital Advisors, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at his residence in New York City early Friday morning in connection with an insider trading investigation...."