Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising  —  The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning “regime change” for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned.  —  Protesters and army on the streets of Cairo

Right takes refuge in Constitution  —  The federal lawsuits against last year's health care overhaul were greeted with eye-rolling and snickers from many conventional legal scholars.  —  Nobody's laughing now.  —  A federal judge in Virginia ruled late last year that a key underpinning …

Axelrod Says U.S. Will Push Egypt for Reforms (Transcript)  —  White House adviser David Axelrod said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend, that the Obama administration will push Egypt “very hard” to make democratic reforms in response …

The Wal-Mart Decade  —  I've been putting some material together for textbook revision, and found myself looking at European versus US productivity performance over the past couple of decades.  I sort of knew the facts here, but this recent paper by Bart van Ark (pdf) seemed …

Inquiry Is Missing Bottom Line  —  There was something almost comical about the way the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released its report on Thursday morning.  —  About a week ago, reporters were told they would get a sneak preview of the report the morning of its release.  The location was undisclosed.

Dennis Kucinich Settles Olive Pit Case  —  Not sure if this qualifies as a Friday news dump, but we now know more than I, for one, ever expected to about what went on in Dennis Kucinich's mouth.  In announcing today he was settling the lawsuit he launched against the operators …