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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

Reporter Scott Powers says Biden's staff kept him confined in a closet during posh fundraiser  —  Vice President Joe Biden is known for putting his foot in his mouth.  Now, his staff is allegedly stuffing reporters in closets.  —  A Florida newspaper reporter claims Biden's staffers placed …

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.

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.”

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)

QUOTE OF THE DAY.... That disgraced former House Speaker sure does say strange things. … Yeah, just think about it.  Unless we all become conservative Christians, the next thing you know, prominent leaders might start cheating on multiple wives.  —  Oh wait.  —  Everything about Gingrich's little tirade is bizarre.

Merkel Loses Key German State on Nuclear Fears  —  BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats on Sunday suffered a major defeat in a historic stronghold in southwestern Germany, where the Green Party appeared poised to head a state government for the first time, according to official preliminary results.

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 …

Obama hosting education town hall with Hispanics  —  President Obama will talk education with an Hispanic audience Monday, an effort which could help his party nullify the GOP's appeal to the fast-growing minority group on the issue.  —  Obama is participating in a “conversation” …

Sec. of State Hillary Clinton condemns violence against Syrian protesters - but says situation is “unique” from Libya  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this weekend that the U.S. was not currently poised to send U.S. military forces into Syria, noting that while “we deplore the violence in Syria …

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.

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.

Govs face budget blowback  —  It was supposed to be one of the clearest messages of the 2010 elections: Voters were finally fed up with government spending.  —  It felt like the usual rules had changed, and that Americans were worried enough about the size of government to support a new era of belt-tightening.