The Night Beat: What the Heck Was McChrystal Thinking?  —  Good evening.  —  ROLLING STAN: What in the heck was Gen. Stanley McChrystal thinking?  I mean, I know what he was thinking: he was tired of being the victim of what he believes is a concerted effort on behalf of Ambassador …

Orszag Leaving as Budget Director  —  Peter R. Orszag will leave his job as the White House budget director in July, according to someone familiar with his plans, making him perhaps the first official to leave the Obama Cabinet and removing a major player from President Obama's economic team.

Why Won't Obama Waive the Jones Act?  —  Five years ago, in the midst of another crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, the Bush administration waived the Jones Act, easing the way for foreign vessels to move in U.S. waters and between ports.  The decision came with the administration under duress for its handling of Hurricane Katrina.

Poll: Most Say Obama Lacks Clear Plans on the Oil Spill, Energy or Jobs  —  CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.  —  Most Americans do not believe President Obama has a clear plan to deal with the oil spill in the Gulf …

In Law Schools, Grades Go Up, Just Like That  —  One day next month every student at Loyola Law School Los Angeles will awake to a higher grade point average.  —  But it's not because they are all working harder.  —  The school is retroactively inflating its grades, tacking on 0.333 to every grade recorded in the last few years.

Hayworth pitched ‘free money’ seminars in 2007 infomercial  —  Republican Senate challenger J.D. Hayworth appeared in a 2007 television infomercial in which he helped convince viewers that they could rake in big bucks by attending seminars that would teach them how to apply for federal grants that they wouldn't have to pay back.

Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?  —  When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.  —  Such people were a valuable addition …

Bloomberg Contributed to Blagojevich's Campaign  —  It turns out that Rod R. Blagojevich, the impeached former governor of Illinois, flamboyant reality television star and billboard for the helmet hairdo, had an unexpected admirer in New York City: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Supreme Court upholds controversial part of Patriot Act  —  On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld a statute - part of the Patriot Act - that outlaws the provision of ‘material support’ to terror groups.  Such support includes assistance that might nudge a group toward nonviolence.  —  Washington

Deep in the Heart of Texas  —  A number of responses to my column about the education I received at Classical High (a public school in Providence, RI) rehearsed a story of late-flowering gratitude after an earlier period of frustration and resentment.  “I had a high school (or a college) …