Nine killed, dozens hurt in Tel Aviv suicide bombing  —  A Palestinian suicide bomber killed nine people and wounded at least 40 others, six of them seriously, in an explosion near the old central bus station in southern Tel Aviv on Monday afternoon.  —  Two of the victims died after they had arrived at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Ryan found guilty on all counts  —  Co-defendant Warner also guilty  —  A federal jury convicted former Gov. George Ryan today on all charges that as secretary of state he steered state business to cronies in return for vacations, gifts and other benefits for himself and his family.

Blame Builds More Barriers in Immigration Debate  —  Does chutzpah translate into Spanish?  —  It's a reasonable question after the joint statement House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) issued last week about the impasse blocking congressional action …

Anger at Bush May Hurt GOP At Polls  —  Intense and widespread opposition to President Bush is likely to be a sharp spur driving voters to the polls in this fall's midterm elections, according to strategists in both parties, a phenomenon that could give Democrats a turnout advantage over Republicans for the first time in recent years.

Congress Approval at 12-Year Low  —  Rating slipped four percentage points since March  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Public approval of the job Congress is doing has dipped to its lowest level of 2006, and is now the worst Gallup has recorded since the closing days of the Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994.

Widen The Net  —  Jason Leopold, writing in TruthOut, and Josh Gerstein of the NY Sun both break news in the Plame investigation.  Evidently the State Department was quite casual about Ms. Plame's CIA role, describing her in one set of notes as "CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Amb.

How to manage illegal immigration  —  Watching the furor over immigration policy during the past week, I felt strangely uninvolved.  I heard the arguments on both sides, I saw the protesters, I read the commentary.  But up here in Minnesota it's not a burning issue, so I've never had to resolve …

Reporters In Glass Houses  —  From Washington, Page Six Is Just a Stone's Throw Away  —  They traffic in whispered gossip, charming the big shots, working the party circuit.  They gravitate toward boldface names who make good copy.  They reward sources who cooperate and can be rougher on those who don't play the game.

No indictments in Duke lacrosse case  —  DURHAM — A Durham grand jury issued a list of indictments this afternoon that did not include members of the Duke University lacrosse team.  —  District Attorney Mike Nifong had been widely anticipated to seek charges today from the grand jury …

Why Newt Is So Much Fun to Watch  —  He's older and wiser, but as refreshingly unorthodox as ever  —  "How many of you have ever used an automatic bank machine overseas?"  Newt Gingrich asks, and since this is a pretty affluent New Hampshire audience, a fair number of people raise their hand.

Outrage at Funeral Protests Pushes Lawmakers to Act  —  Members of Westboro Baptist Church demonstrating in February in Anoka, Minn., near the funeral for Cpl. Andrew Kemple, who was killed in Iraq.  People opposed to the church's views carried flags nearby.

No One Is That Crazy.  Right?  Ummm...right?  —  One thing that strikes me as funny about this whole "let's invade Iran" thing...wait, did I actually just type that?  I'm looking at the desk and I don't see any glass tube with burnt-up brillo pad in it, so I probably didn't just smoke a glittering rock of yeyo.

Cartoon Jihad Strikes Down Nashville Blogger  —  Nashville, Tennessee's Bill Hobbs, the Volunteer State's second best known conservative blogger, lost his job at Belmont University for publishing a cartoon featuring Mohammed, alluding to the Danish cartoons which have created an international uproar.

Post ombudsman defended editorial's falsehoods as a difference in "views" … In an April 16 column purportedly explaining the inconsistencies between The Washington Post's April 9 editorial titled "A Good Leak" and an article published the same day by staff writers Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer …

Descent into anger and despair  —  LAST WEEK, the rattling of sabers filled the air.  Various published reports, most notably one from Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker, indicated that Washington is removing swords from scabbards and heightening the threat aimed at Iran, which refuses to suspend its nuclear project.

SEND A BRICK TO CONGRESS  —  There's a new citizen campaign to protest Washington's illegal alien amnesty plans called Send A Brick: … A few photos of bricks that have been mailed in:  —  If you want to send something a bit lighter, you can always go with these: