Donald Trump: How did Barack Obama get into Ivies?  —  ‘How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?’  Trump asked.  AP Photo  —  Donald Trump is upping the ante against President Barack Obama's legitimacy, raising questions on Monday night about how the president was admitted to two Ivy League schools.

Americans depend more on federal aid than ever  —  Americans depended more on government assistance in 2010 than at any other time in the nation's history, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds.  The trend shows few signs of easing, even though the economic recovery is nearly 2 years old.

Obama revealed: A moderate Republican  —  America is mired in three wars.  The past decade was the hottest on record.  Unemployment remains stuck near 9 percent, and there's a small, albeit real, possibility that the U.S. government will default on its debt.  So what's dominating the news?

Behind A Major Law Firm's Decision To Ditch Its Defense Of DOMA  —  When the Atlanta-based law firm King & Spalding announced on April 18 that it would represent the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act …

Financiers Switch to GOP  —  Hedge-Fund Titans Who Backed Democrats Open Their Wallets for Republicans  —  Hedge-fund managers made a big bet on Barack Obama and other Democrats in 2008.  Now, with the 2012 contest gearing up, some prominent fund managers have turned their backs on the party and are actively supporting Republicans.

Don't laugh at Paul  —  Ron Paul's not as big of a joke as people think.  —  Do I think he has a serious chance at the Republican nomination?  Not really.  But I think he could play a much bigger role in the race than people might expect.  Consider some of these recent poll numbers:

Arizona governor: ‘Birther’ sentiment ‘leading our country down a path of destruction’  —  Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), who vetoed a bill last week that would have required presidential candidates to prove they were born in the U.S. to get on the state's ballot, implored members of her party Monday to move on.

High gas prices cut into driving habits — and Obama's approval rating  —  Soaring gasoline prices are biting into household incomes and nibbling at Americans' fuel consumption — and support for President Obama, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

College Teams, Relying on Deception, Undermine Gender Equity  —  Ever since Congress passed the federal gender-equity law known as Title IX, universities have opened their gyms and athletic fields to millions of women who previously did not have chances to play.

Hal Rogers's ‘empire’ of nonprofits under scrutiny  —  Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has funneled more than $236 million in federal funds since 2000 to a web of nonprofit groups he created back home in the Bluegrass State, according to a new report by an ethics watchdog group.

Scott Brown gets Democratic challenger  —  Democratic activist Alan Khazei announced Tuesday that he will vie for his party's nomination to face Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R).  —  Khazei, co-founder of the non-profit group City Year, posted the announcement on his website and said he is holding a kickoff event in Boston.

GOP's gamble on the budget pays off, so far  —  WASHINGTON — A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds that House Republicans, who took a political risk in passing a controversial budget blueprint last week, have survived so far with some key advantages intact as Congress moves toward the debate …

Reducing Health Costs With Voluntary Death Panels  —  Andrew Sullivan notes that if people were a little more responsible about planning for our own demise that this could reduce health care spending: … Of course put in terms of “everyone” it's creepy and totalitarian.

'I'm a Shell Oil creation,' says EPA chief  —  EPA chief Lisa Jackson said Tuesday that Shell Oil — which has butted heads with the Environmental Protection Agency over a range of issues — financed her undergraduate education.  —  The company gave Jackson a scholarship to Tulane University, where she got her undergraduate degree.

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Hard Keynesianism in the European Union  —  John Quiggin and I have a piece on the eurozone mess in the new issue of Foreign Affairs.  The piece is subscriber-only, but we're allowed to post it (in Web format) for six months or so on a personal or institutional website.  Accordingly, the piece can be found below the fold.

Another life line for Death Row cop-killer Mumia abu Jamal  —  1980s Death Row cop-killer Mumia abu Jamal, darling of the progressive Left, will get yet another day in court: … Yes, they called him a “death row activist.”  —  Only marginally less obnoxious than when AFP called him a “human rights campaigner.”

Donald Trump Loves Jefferson Davis  —  Or at least, his retirement home.  I'm doing some digging into Republican candidates' positions on and involvement in the arts, so on a whim, I Nexised “Donald Trump donated.”  Turns out the Donald ponied up $25,000 for the post-Katrina restoration of Beauvoir …

More Than 1 Billion People Are Hungry in the World  —  But what if the experts are wrong?  —  For many in the West, poverty is almost synonymous with hunger.  Indeed, the announcement by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2009 that more than 1 billion people are suffering …

Messina: Obama 2012 will be run as ‘an insurgent campaign’ — Barbour feared race about race that GOP couldn't win - Boehner to Obama: ‘Grow up’ — Marc Short joins Team Koch - Rob Collins free agent  —  Good Tuesday morning.  Mississippi Gov. HALEY BARBOUR's decision not to seek …

Proposition 8 supporters say ruling should be voided  —  A group opposed to gay marriage says Judge Vaughn R. Walker should have disclosed that he was in a long-term same-sex relationship and recused himself from presiding over the Proposition 8 case.  —  Vaughn R. Walker presided over a 12 …

U.S. Effort to Remove Drug CEO Jolts Firms  —  A government attempt to oust a longtime drug-company chief executive over his company's marketing violations is raising alarms in that industry and beyond about a potential expansion of federal involvement in the business world.

States face $1.26 trillion shortfall in funds to pay retiree benefits  —  The state funds that pay pension and health-care benefits to retired teachers, corrections officers and millions of other public workers faced a cumulative shortfall of at least $1.26 trillion at the end of fiscal 2009, according to a new report.