Facebook May Hire Robert Gibbs, Former Obama Aide  —  Facebook is in talks to hire Robert Gibbs, President Obama's former White House press secretary, for a senior role in helping to manage the company's communications, people briefed on the negotiations said.

Ayers affirms he wrote Dreams from my Father  —  Last Thursday evening at Montclair State University, with a video camera rolling, Bill Ayers volunteered that yes indeed he had written the acclaimed Barack Obama memoir, Dreams from My Father.  —  Unprompted, Ayers also noted that while Dreams deserves …

Fiscal Showdown Looms in Capitol  —  The White House and Democratic lawmakers, with less than two weeks left to avoid a government shutdown, are assembling a proposal for roughly $20 billion in additional spending cuts that could soon be offered to Republicans, according to people close to the budget talks.

Libyan Rebel Gains Could Be Fleeting, U.S. Military Says  —  TRIPOLI, Libya — As rebel forces backed by allied warplanes pushed toward one of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's most crucial bastions of support, the American military warned on Monday that their rapid gains could quickly be reversed without continued coalition air support.

American Thought Police  —  Recently William Cronon, a historian who teaches at the University of Wisconsin, decided to weigh in on his state's political turmoil.  He started a blog, “Scholar as Citizen,” devoting his first post to the role of the shadowy American Legislative Exchange Council …

When standardized test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?  —  WASHINGTON — In just two years, Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus went from a school deemed in need of improvement to a place that the District of Columbia Public Schools called one of its “shining stars.”

N.Y. Budget Deal Cuts Aid to Schools and Health Care  —  Culminating weeks of secretive negotiations and intense political jockeying, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and leaders of the Legislature on Sunday announced a $132.5 billion budget agreement that would cut spending, impose no major new taxes …

Joe McQuaid's Publisher's Notebook: The newspaper's a year older; and we are still being blamed  —  This past Thursday was an anniversary.  The “Union” part of the Union Leader begn its 149th year of continuous daily publication.  It was a weekly even earlier.  — > Jim Grady: RGGI benefits all Granite Staters (13)

Tim Pawlenty Beefs Up National Fundraising Team Ahead Of Presidential Bid  —  ABC News' Michael Falcone reports:  —  As he ramps up his likely 2012 presidential bid, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is turning his attention to building a robust fundraising organization.

The Reagan shooting: A closer call than we knew  —  Bob Schieffer on how quick thinking prevented a tragedy when a gunman fired on the president 30 years ago … It's one of those artifacts of the electronic age: Videotape of an ordinary afternoon that, in a matter of seconds, became etched forever in our memories.

Supreme Court to Weigh Sociology Issue in Wal-Mart Discrimination Case  —  WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court considers on Tuesday whether hundreds of thousands of women can band together in an employment discrimination suit against Wal-Mart, the argument may hinge on the validity …

Water Issues Worry Americans Most, Global Warming Least  —  Environmental concerns are flat since 2010, but down over past decade  —  PRINCETON, NJ — With Earth Day about a month away, Americans tell Gallup they worry the most about several water-related risks and issues among nine major environmental issues.

Japan nuclear plant data error was ‘unacceptable’  —  The BBC's Mark Worthington says many people in Japan are becoming increasingly concerned about what is going to happen in the future  —  The Japanese government has attacked the operator of a crippled nuclear plant for “unacceptable” mistakes.

Wages and Employment, Yet Again  —  Oh, my.  Even Matt Yglesias doesn't quite get it.  —  Writing about Republican plans to raise employment by reducing it, he writes … Then he turns, rightly, to the problem of nominally denominated debt.  But look: even if we didn't have that problem …

Goldblog is a Pro-J Street Blog  —  Ordinarily, I would not be so vociferous in the defense of J Street, but the hearing last week in the Knesset held to determine whether or not J Street is a pro-Israel organization ("No" was the answer from the revanchists who organized the inquiry) …