U.S. Accuses Goldman Sachs of Fraud  —  Goldman Sachs, which emerged relatively unscathed from the financial crisis, was accused of securities fraud in a civil suit filed Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the bank created and sold a mortgage investment that was secretly devised to fail.

Obama ‘amused’ by Tea Party rallies  —  President Barack Obama struck a hyperpartisan note Thursday, telling Democrats that he was “amused” by the Tax Day Tea Party rallies.  —  Obama, addressing a Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser in Miami, did little to endear himself …

White House complains about CBS News blog post saying that possible Supreme Court nominee is gay  —  The White House ripped CBS News on Thursday for publishing an online column by a blogger who made assertions about the sexual orientation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan, widely viewed as a leading candidate for the Supreme Court.

Obama orders hospitals to grant same-sex couples visitation rights  —  President Obama on Thursday signed a memorandum requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.  —  The president ordered the Department …

Source: Shakeup to come in Senate race  —  LAKE MARY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 News) - On Thursday, Governor Charlie Crist vetoed the controversial teacher merit pay bill, breaking with conservative ranks.  Then the head of the Republican U.S. Senate Re-election Committee issued a warning …

Brutal attack on Republican fundraiser and her boyfriend appears politically motivated  —  Last Friday night, Allee Bautsch, the chief fundraiser for Louisiana's Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, was violently assaulted, along with her boyfriend, outside of a famed New Orleans restaurant.

The Fire Next Time  —  On Tuesday, Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, called for the abolition of municipal fire departments.  —  Firefighters, he declared, “won't solve the problems that led to recent fires.  They will make them worse.”  The existence of fire departments …

U.S. SENATE RACE: Poll: Reid loses full ballot test  —  Third-party, nonpartisan candidates have little impact  —  U.S. Sen. Harry Reid must pick up far more support from crossover Republicans and independents to win re-election, according to a new poll that shows him losing to the GOP front-runner …

C.I.A. Document Details Destruction of Tapes  —  WASHINGTON — Porter J. Goss, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in 2005 approved of the decision by one of his top aides to destroy dozens of videotapes documenting the brutal interrogation of two detainees, according to an internal C.I.A. document released Thursday.

Obama's nuclear strutting and fretting  —  There was something oddly disproportionate about the just-concluded nuclear summit to which President Obama summoned 46 world leaders, the largest such gathering on American soil since 1945.  That meeting was about the founding of the United Nations …

HI-01: Three-way tie headed into special election  —  Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 4/11-14.  Likely voters.  MoE 5% (No trend lines)  —  Ed Case (D) 29  —  Colleen Hanabusa (D) 28  —  Charles Djou (R) 32  —  Other 4  —  Undecided 7  —  The May 22 special election is a “jungle primary” …

New House Ratings: 44 Seats Moved Toward GOP  —  We are still seven months until the midterm elections, so there is at least some possibility that the landscape could shift or that Democratic attacks on the GOP could keep Republican gains down to a minimum.  —  Substantial Republican gains …

Lawyer: Laptops took thousands of images  —  The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats …

51% in New Jersey Favor Repeal of Health Care Bill  —  Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters in New Jersey, a state Barack Obama carried handily in 2008, now favor repeal of the recently-passed national health care bill.  That includes 41% who strongly favor repeal.

Recalling '95 Bombing, Clinton Sees Parallels  —  WASHINGTON — With the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing approaching, former President Bill Clinton on Thursday drew parallels between the antigovernment tone that preceded that devastating attack and the political tumult of today …

Dueling Columnists  —  A surprising disagreement has broken out between two Times columnists, with Paul Krugman demanding an apology from Andrew Ross Sorkin and Sorkin so far refusing to back down.  —  The argument is over what approach Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who writes …

‘Tea party’ protesters gather in Washington to rally against taxes, spending  —  Thousands of conservative “tea party” activists streamed into the nation's capital Thursday to protest Obama administration policies and denounce what they regard as excessive taxation and government spending.