SEIU officials: Stern to resign  —  Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern, one of America's most prominent labor leaders, is set to resign, according to a member of the union's board and another SEIU official.  —  The President of an SEIU local based in Seattle …

Washington Memo: Baffled by Health Plan?  So Are Some Lawmakers  —  WASHINGTON — It is often said that the new health care law will affect almost every American in some way.  And, perhaps fittingly if unintentionally, no one may be more affected than members of Congress themselves.

Tea Party NY Gov Candidate's E-Mails Exposed: Racism, Porn, Bestiality  —  An online news outlet in New York state has obtained dozens of emails, many of them racist and sexually graphic, which it reports were sent by Carl Paladino, the Tea-Party-backed Republican candidate for governor of New York …

The Sarcasm of Sarah Palin  —  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin delivered a well-received speech on Friday at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, an address defined — as almost all of her public pronouncements have been in the 18 months since she emerged on the national political scene — by a stinging sense of sarcasm.

Senators End Impasse on Extending Jobless Aid  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday agreed to consider a temporary extension of unemployment benefits after four Republicans joined Democrats in voting to debate the proposal, which has become the focus of an intensifying fight over deficit spending.

Bill Kristol: Kagan Would Be Respectable Choice for Supreme Court, But Republicans Should Oppose Her  —  Well folks, here's some of the rhetoric we're going to be hearing from the GOP on this upcoming Supreme Court nomination.  Bill Kristol talks out of both sides of his mouth and while saying …

Healthcare law to sock middle class with a $3.9 billion tax increase in 2019  —  Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes — in 2019 alone — because of healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress's official scorekeeper for legislation.

Boehner: Repealing healthcare law GOP's ‘No. 1 priority’  —  Repealing healthcare reform will be Republicans' “No. 1 priority,” their House leader said Monday.  —  House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that repealing the healthcare legislation passed in Congress last month …

Miss. Confederate History Month ignores slavery  —  JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour drew criticism for proclaiming April as Confederate Heritage Month without mentioning slavery, the second governor this month to come under fire for the omission.

Obama team is optimistic on deficit  —  The federal deficit is running significantly lower than it did last year, with the budget gap for the first half of fiscal 2010 down 8 percent over the same period a year ago, senior Obama administration officials said Monday.

‘BARTER WITH YOUR DOCTOR’.... Once in a great while, we get a peek at Republicans' health care ideals, but rarely do we see them articulated as candidly as Sue Lowden described them last week.  —  Lowden is a former state senator and chair of the Nevada Republican Party.

Lehman Channeled Risks Through ‘Alter Ego’ Firm  —  It was like a hidden passage on Wall Street, a secret channel that enabled billions of dollars to flow through Lehman Brothers.  —  In the years before its collapse, Lehman used a small company — its “alter ego,” in the words of a former Lehman trader …

Obama spokesman Gibbs sounds eager for future strategist role  —  Robert Gibbs does not seem particularly attached to his office.  —  There is a dormant fireplace ("a problem with the flue," Gibbs said), a cluttered desk, a flat-screen television and a smaller monitor simultaneously displaying C-SPAN, MSNBC, the networks.

Okla. tea parties and lawmakers envision militia  —  OKLAHOMA CITY - Frustrated by recent political setbacks, tea party leaders and some conservative members of the Oklahoma Legislature say they would like to create a new volunteer militia to help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty.

Deal Reached With Ukraine on Uranium at Nuclear Talks  —  WASHINGTON — In a first concrete achievement from the nuclear security summit meeting here, the government of Ukraine said on Monday that it would eliminate its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.  —  Moments later …