memeorandum: State says damage to marble at Capitol could hit $7.5 million (JSOnline)

9:50 AM ET, March 4, 2011

Top Items:

Hiding senators held in contempt; layoff notices to go out today — By Patrick Marley and Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel — Madison — Pressure ratcheted up on absent Senate Democrats on Thursday, as they were found in contempt by GOP senators and Gov. Scott Walker …

ABCNEWS:
Wisconsin Protesters Ordered Out of Capitol After Gov. Scott Walker Threatens Layoffs

Discussion: The Politico, WKOW 27, The Hill, Maggie's Notebook and FrumForum

JSOnline:
Demonstrators suddenly enter Capitol

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, POWIP and Althouse

David Dayen / Firedoglake:
Wisconsin Recall Efforts Off to Strong Start

Discussion: Rasmussen Reports, The Huffington Post and Balloon Juice

Monica Davey / New York Times:
Wisconsin Governor Says He Will Begin Issuing Layoff Warnings to Unions

Discussion: In the Arena

David Ariosto / CNN:
Wisconsin Senate votes to detain absentee Democrats

Discussion: In the Arena, The Volokh Conspiracy, RedState and AOL News

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Soldier in Leaks Case Was Jailed Naked, Lawyer Says — WASHINGTON — A lawyer for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking secret government files to WikiLeaks, has complained that his client was stripped and left naked in his cell for seven hours on Wednesday.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Wonkette, FrumForum, Firedoglake, New York Magazine and Salon

Army Court-Martial Defense Specialist / The Law Office …:

PFC Manning Forced to Strip Naked — Last night, PFC Manning was inexplicably stripped of all clothing by the Quantico Brig. He remained in his cell, naked, for the next seven hours. At 5:00 a.m., the Brig sounded the wake-up call for the detainees. At this point, PFC Manning was forced to stand naked at the front of his cell.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Firedoglake, Runnin' Scared, Emptywheel and Opinio Juris

JSOnline:

State says damage to marble at Capitol could hit $7.5 million — Madison - State officials said Thursday that damage to the marble inside and out the State Capitol would cost an estimated $7.5 million. — Cari Anne Renlund, chief legal counsel for the state Department of Administration …

Discussion: Hot Air, Scared Monkeys, American Spectator, Firedoglake, Another Black Conservative, NewsBusters.org, No More Mister Nice Blog, Right Wing News and The Lonely Conservative

WITI:
Officials say it'll cost $7.5 million to clean up glue, tape, posters left from protesters

Discussion: Conservatives4Palin and The Gateway Pundit

Sharyl Attkisson / CBS News:

Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico — ATF agent says “Fast and Furious” program let guns “walk” into hands of Mexican drug cartels with aim of tracking and breaking a big case — WASHINGTON - Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.

Discussion: Right Wing News, The Lonely Conservative and Clayton Cramer's Blog

Brady McCombs / Arizona Daily Star:
Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight

Discussion: theblogprof, Weasel Zippers, 24Ahead, Don Surber, National Review, Pajamas Media and The Gateway Pundit

Des Moines Register:

Exploring run in 2012, Donald Trump plans Iowa visit — New York billionaire Donald Trump said in a Des Moines Register interview Thursday that he expects to visit Iowa soon, likely before his self-imposed June deadline for seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Discussion: CNN

Alexander Burns / Reuters:
Newt Gingrich's rough week

Discussion: GOP 12, Washington Wire, Weigel and Politics Daily

Neil King Jr / Washington Wire:
Gingrich 2012 Website Uses Kennedy Stock Photo

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Wire and The Raw Story

Jim Demint / Wall Street Journal:

Public Broadcasting Should Go Private — If these outfits can afford to pay lavish salaries to their heads, they don't need taxpayer help. — When presidents of government-funded broadcasting are making more than the president of the United States, it's time to get the government out of public broadcasting.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Doug Ross, The Lonely Conservative and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

James Lindgren / National Review:

A New Strategy for Wisconsin — On February 17, the 14 Democratic members of the Wisconsin senate fled across the state line to the Best Western Clock Tower Resort in Rockford, Ill., the city in which I grew up. They were denying Republicans a three-fifths quorum on a bill that would restrict public unions in Wisconsin.

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy

Jim Lindgren / The Volokh Conspiracy:
Wisconsin Senate Does Not Need a 3/5ths Quorum to Pass Much of the Budget Bill

Discussion: UrbanGrounds and protein wisdom

Lisa W. Foderaro / New York Times:

James Franco Straddles Two Roles at Yale — On Sunday night he was in Hollywood, as co-host of the Oscar telecast in black tie. At 9 the next morning, he was in a Starbucks in New Haven, hunched over a book and barely recognizable in a gray sweatshirt, but still wearing his tuxedo pants.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, PopEater, Prairie Weather, ArtsBeat and The Reality-Based Community

Wall Street Journal:

GOP Aims to Tame Benefits Programs — Boehner Promises Entitlement Review — WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he's determined to offer a budget this spring that curbs Social Security and Medicare, despite the political risks, and that Republicans will try to persuade voters that sacrifices are needed.

Discussion: The Fix, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Right Turn, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and ABCNEWS

Catherine Rampell / New York Times:

U.S. Added 192,000 Jobs in February; Rate at 8.9% — America's job engine picked up some steam last month. — The nation's employers added 192,000 jobs in February, after having added just 63,000 the previous month, the Labor Department reported on Friday. — The February number was about what economists had been forecasting.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, FT Alphaville, AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway and Calculated Risk

Scott Wilson / Washington Post:

Obama administration prepares for possibility of new post-revolt Islamist regimes — The Obama administration is preparing for the prospect that Islamist governments will take hold in North Africa and the Middle East, acknowledging that the popular revolutions there will bring a more religious cast to the region's politics.

Discussion: National Review, Jihad Watch, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Weasel Zippers and Greg's Opinion

Christopher Hayes / The Nation:

Why Washington Doesn't Care About Jobs — This article appeared in the March 21, 2011 edition of The Nation. — Recommended by — Remember when everyone agreed that what the American people wanted from Washington was, in John Boehner's words, a “relentless focus on creating jobs”?

Discussion: Yglesias, Booman Tribune, Sky Dancing, Balloon Juice, Open Congress and Mother Jones

Erin McPike / Real Clear Politics:

Sununu: I'll Work Against Huntsman — HAMPTON FALLS, N.H. — Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu is no fan of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and intends to work against him in the Granite State's Republican presidential primary if he decides to launch a bid for the White House this cycle.

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Hill and GOP 12

The Hill:

Republicans ramp up push to block EPA climate regulations — Republicans unveiled legislation that strips the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, a move that escalates the GOP's attack on the White House environmental and energy agenda.

Discussion: SENATUS

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:
Senate Democrat sponsors GOP bill to block EPA climate rules

Discussion: Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Lonely Conservative and Riehl World View

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

How to Kill a Recovery — The economic news has been better lately. New claims for unemployment insurance are down; business and consumer surveys suggest solid growth. We're still near the bottom of a very deep hole, but at least we're climbing. — It's too bad that so many people …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Prairie Weather

Jonathan Capehart / PostPartisan:

Sam Arora's disgraceful wavering on marriage equality in Maryland — Around 9:00 a.m. Thursday, Maryland House Del. Sam Arora (D-Montgomery County) — who raised a ton of cash from the gay community and progressives based on his stance on marriage equality and who is a co-sponsor …

Discussion: AMERICAblog Gay, Pam's House Blend, The Washington Note, ECHIDNE of the snakes and Baltimore Sun

Eric Hananoki / Media Matters for America:

Huckabee Attacks Natalie Portman For Glamorizing “Out Of Wedlock Births” — In a radio appearance on Monday, Mike Huckabee attacked actress Natalie Portman for having a child “out of wedlock.” Huckabee said that it's “troubling” to see people like “Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet …

Discussion: Feministing, The Other McCain, msnbc.com, Balloon Juice and New York Magazine

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:

House appropriator: We know how to get around earmark ban — A House Democrat indicated Thursday that lawmakers are getting around the new ban on earmarks by convincing Obama administration officials to fund their pet projects. — Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), an appropriator …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Peter Whoriskey / Washington Post:

Economists: State, local pension funds understate shortfall by $1.5 trillion or more — The pension funds for state and local workers in the United States are understating the amount they will owe workers by $1.5 trillion or more, according to some economists who have studied the issue …

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Peter Schmidt / Chronicle of Higher Education:

Ohio Senate Votes to Deny Collective-Bargaining Rights to Most Public-College Professors — A bill narrowly approved by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday contains even worse news for public colleges' labor unions than they had feared: In addition to scaling back the collective-bargaining rights …

Discussion: Law Librarian Blog and Plunderbund

Kevin Sack / New York Times:

Judge Stays Own Ruling Against Health Care Law — A federal judge in Florida on Thursday issued a stay of his own ruling against the Obama health care act, allowing the law to remain fully in effect while being appealed, eventually to the Supreme Court. — The Florida case …

Discussion: Politics Daily and Washington Monthly

New York Post:

Gunning for Eliot — Eliot Spitzer's resurrection — from the disgraced gov ernor better known as Cli ent 9 to CNN talk-show host — has the political class buzzing about him running for mayor in 2013. Wilder still, one of his former targets is talking about running against him.

Discussion: alicublog, The Wire, The Big Picture, JammieWearingFool and New York Magazine

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Obama weaker than 2008 but still solid in Wisconsin — Wisconsin is one state where Barack Obama definitely seems to be weaker than he was in 2008, but he would still win it comfortably if he had to stand for election today if not quite by the lofty margin he did last time around.

Discussion: GOP 12