Top Items:
Hugh Hewitt / Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog:
Newspaper Suicide: The Star Tribune Kills Lileks' Column — Let's see. Your circulation is crashing. The value of your paper has plummeted. Everyone in the industry recognizes that the the future is online, and most realize that the byline has become the brand and that writers …
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Nancy / nancynall.com:
A bleat. — I wasn't going to write anything about James Lileks', er, sudden change of assignment. I mean, talk about your inside baseball. But reading about the right-wing blog star / Minneapolis Star Tribune "humor" columnist's predicament — abruptly told the paper had other plans for his FTE …
The Big Trunk / Power Line:
BIG BANG AT THE STAR TRIBUNE — Paul Schmelzer and Brian Lambert have been previewing a shakeup among the columnists at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Despite these rumblings, I find it almost unbelievable that the first evidence of the shakeup is the folding of the daily column by James Lileks.
Paul Schmelzer / Minnesota Monitor:
Strib Shakeup: Amid Columnist Queries, Rumors of Buyouts and a 'Backfence' Departure — The Star Tribune has asked its metro columnists to voluntarily give up columns and take over reporting beats, The Rake's Brian Lambert reports — but, according to newsroom insiders, the shakeup won't end there.
Discussion:
SCSUScholars
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Strib Manages To Make It Worse
Strib Manages To Make It Worse
Discussion:
shotinthedark.info/wp …
John Fund / Opinion Journal:
L'Adulte — Can Sarkozy reform France? — Conservative Nikolas Sarkozy's comfortable victory over Socialist Ségolène Royal in France's presidential race may that indicate Europe's slowest-growing major economy is finally ready for some change.
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Martin Arnold / Financial Times:
Defeated Socialists search for scapegoats — Let the finger-pointing begin. Ségolène Royal's defeat on Sunday night left the French Socialist party in disarray and searching for someone to blame. There is hardly a shortage of scapegoats. — It is the party's third consecutive presidential defeat.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, The Independent, Times of London, The Moderate Voice, QandO, Telegraph, Guardian, Andrew Bolt, On Politics, Redstate, AMERICAN FUTURE and Babalu Blog
Craig S. Smith / New York Times:
Sarkozy Wins the Chance to Prove His Critics Wrong — Arrogant, brutal, an authoritarian demagogue, a "perfect Iago": the president-elect of France has been called a lot of unpleasant things in recent months and now has five years to prove his critics wrong.
Angela Charlton / Associated Press:
Nicolas Sarkozy wins French presidency
Nicolas Sarkozy wins French presidency
Discussion:
The Glittering Eye, Outside The Beltway, Little Green Footballs, Bloomberg and AMERICAblog
Associated Press:
Backpack blast near Vegas casino kills 1 — LAS VEGAS (AP) — A backpack exploded in a parking garage attached to a Las Vegas hotel early Monday, killing a man who had picked it up and injuring another person, authorities said. — The man had removed the backpack from atop his car …
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Vox Popoli
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KCBS - KCBS All News 740 AM:
Iraq War Hampers Kansas Cleanup — GREENSBURG, Kan. (AP) — The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, Kansas, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state's governor. — Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment …
Discussion:
Think Progress, NewsBusters.org, NION, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Middle Earth Journal, Donklephant and JammieWearingFool
Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
California Gains Clout With Earlier Primary — When Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, finished a speech on foreign policy recently in Northern California, he was surrounded by reporters who wanted to ask about another topic: global warming and how it was contributing to the state's water shortage.
Alec MacGillis / Washington Post:
On Poverty, Edwards Faces Old Hurdles — Critics Say He Brings Few Fresh Ideas to Signature Issue — ALLENDALE, S.C. — His rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination were busy April 26 preparing for their first televised debate, but John Edwards was 45 miles south …
Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Today's Must Read — I'm not sure if this qualifies as ironic or just sadly fitting. — As we've attempted to document here, the Civil Rights Division has been the focus of the most dramatic effort at politicization in the Justice Department. Career lawyers, harassed and discouraged …
Discussion:
Real Cities, The Right Angle, The Carpetbagger Report, Shakesville and Comments From Left Field
Tim Shorrock / Salon:
George Tenet cashes in on Iraq — If you go by the book jacket of his new memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," George Tenet is enjoying the life of a retired government servant teaching at Georgetown University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 2004.
Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:
The Loyalty Enforcer — The role of Monica Goodling, a former GOP "oppo" researcher who became a top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is getting new scrutiny in the U.S. attorneys flap. — Justice confirmed it's investigating whether Goodling improperly assessed the political loyalties …
Discussion:
The Next Hurrah
John Schwartz / New York Times:
Critic Says Levee Repairs Show Signs of Flaws — Some of the most celebrated levee repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina are already showing signs of serious flaws, a leading critic of the corps says. — The critic, Robert G. Bea, a professor of engineering …