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Goldman Sachs taps ex-W.H. counsel — Goldman Sachs is launching an aggressive response to its political and legal challenges with an unlikely ally at its side — President Barack Obama's former White House counsel, Gregory Craig. — The beleaguered Wall Street bank hired Craig …
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Crist's Passions: Listening for Answers the GOP May Not Want — Charlie Crist gets to set the course for the GOP after all. (Whether it's where Republicans want to be led — that's another question.) — Since we know that he's listening and all — what he's hearing back is some mixed sounds, of varying volumes.


Head Lock — The inside story of how Goldman and the banks are getting clobbered on financial reform. — Some two dozen executives from large corporations will be descending on Capitol Hill today to make the case against over-regulating derivatives. The “fly-in” is being organized in part …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Democratic Strategist, Washington Wire, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and ABCNEWS

FIRST THOUGHTS: LOTS OF MOVING PARTS — Several moving parts in the battle over financial reform (Obama to speak in NY on Thursday, DNC up with new TV ad, Goldman Sachs earns $3.3 billion in 1st quarter and hires Greg Craig, and Mitch McConnell's tone shifts)... New Gallup poll shows that saying …

Banking Reform Sells Better When “Wall Street” Is Mentioned
Discussion:
The Swamp

Gay rights protesters interrupt Obama speech at fundraiser — Gay rights protesters interrupted President Barack Obama's speech at a fundraiser for California Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) Monday night in Los Angeles. — Activists from a group called GetEQUAL began shouting at Obama while he was speaking at the podium.
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Obama to Save Boxer Like He Saved Corzine! — Do Obama and Boxer realize they are on the wrong side of a tsunami of voter discontent with a government run by and for the public employee unions? — President Obama is “swooping” into Los Angeles today to try to save Senator Barbara Boxer …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …


Gay protesters interrupt Obama at California fundraiser for Barbara Boxer

Sen. Collins pledges to block Democratic Wall Street bill — Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced after meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday that she will vote to filibuster a Democratic Wall Street reform bill. — Her announcement hurts Democratic chances …
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Democrats seek to close partisan divide on Wall Street reform
Discussion:
The Politico, Wall Street Journal, Deal Journal, Los Angeles Times, Mouth of the Potomac and The Plum Line


A Letter: Apple Wants Its Secret iPhone Back — Well, how can I explain this? I got some interesting calls today. It was Apple. And they wanted their phone back. — This phone was lost, and then found. But from Apple's perspective, it could have been considered stolen.
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This Is Apple's Next iPhone — You are looking at Apple's next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS. We got it. We disassembled it. It's the real thing, and here are all the details. — While Apple may tinker with the final packaging …

For Apple, Lost iPhone Is a Big Deal — For anyone who has ever lost a cellphone, remember this: it could be worse. You could be the person who left his phone in a bar in California. And it wasn't just any phone; it was a supersecret version of the next iPhone.


GOP Split Over How to Win in Fall — WASHINGTON—Sen. John Cornyn, who is spearheading the Republicans' campaign to take back the Senate, is on a roll. The GOP snatched a seat in Massachusetts and polls favor Republicans in many key states. — But the genial Texas lawyer is facing an unusual challenge …
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A Difficult Path in Goldman Case — The Securities and Exchange Commission has taken on a risky case as it tries to re-establish its credibility as an enforcer. The outcome hinges on the strength of the evidence it has gathered. — WASHINGTON — In accusing Goldman Sachs of defrauding investors …
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FDA plans to limit amount of salt allowed in processed foods for health reasons — The Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans, saying that less sodium in everything from soup to nuts would prevent thousands …


Dorothy I. Height, founding matriarch of civil rights movement, dies at 98 — Dorothy I. Height, 98, a founding matriarch of the American civil rights movement whose crusade for racial justice and gender equality spanned more than six decades, died early Tuesday morning of natural causes …


What's behind the anti-Tea Party hate narrative? — There's a new narrative taking hold in the wake of the recent Tea Party protests and the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing: The Tea Partiers' intense opposition to the Obama administration has led to overheated political rhetoric …

Free Speech Denied In Miami — In an outrageous denial of free speech rights, Miami-Dade Transit last week forced the removal of a “Leaving Islam” ad campaign on Miami buses because the ads might be “offensive to Islam.” — The Freedom Defense Initiative, the new organization I have begun …
Discussion:
Jihad Watch

The costs of crossing the president — Will the White House punish Democrats who defected on the monumental health care overhaul? — “There is not a whole lot of [President] Barack Obama and [Vice President] Joe Biden to spare on a good day,” one senior White House official told POLITICO.


More from Eyjafjallajokull — As ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano continued to keep European airspace shut down over the weekend, affecting millions of travelers around the world, some government agencies and airlines clashed over the flight bans.


Biden to announce change in Title IX women's sports policy — Washington (CNN) - The Obama administration plans to change the so-called Title IX policy which governs gender equality in sports, eliminating what some women's rights supporters claim is a Bush-administration loophole in compliance …
Discussion:
TalkLeft

Crist: 'I'm Staying in This Race' — By: Robert Costa — In an exclusive interview, Gov. Charlie Crist (R., Fla.) tells National Review Online that “damn right, I'm staying in this race.” He tells us that he will not run as a Democrat. “I was never going to do that.”

Immigration Bill Reflects a Firebrand's Impact — PHOENIX — The Arizona Senate passed one of the most stringent immigration laws in the country on Monday, marking a new level of influence for a Republican state senator who not long ago was seen by many as an eccentric firebrand.

US climate report publicized in runup to Senate bill — Source: Reuters — An environmental coalition publicized a new U.S. draft report on climate change on Monday, one week before the expected unveiling of a compromise U.S. Senate bill that aims to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit