memeorandum: Germany Says Bean Sprouts Likely E.Coli Source (Alan Cowell/New York Times)

1:25 PM ET, June 10, 2011

Top Items:

Two separate and reliable source in Texas tell me serious preparations are being made for Governor Rick Perry, 61, to seek the Republican nomination for president. — Dave Carney and Rob Johnson — the former top Perry aides who on Thursday left Newt Gingrich's campaign …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Lisa Graas, GOP 12, Outside the Beltway, americanthinker.com, The Lonely Conservative, alicublog, AmSpecBlog and FrumForum

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:

The Problem Was the Wife — The problem was the wife. Aides to Newt Gingrich have resigned from his presidential campaign in protest of what they felt was a takeover by Callista Gingrich, the candidate's wife since 2000. — The euphemism offered by departing staffers was they disagreed with Gingrich's “strategy” for the campaign.

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway, The New Republic, Don Surber, The Impolitic, Lisa Graas, Connecting.the.Dots, TPMDC, The Other McCain, Donklephant, Pajamas Media, The Caucus and Mother Jones

Alexander Burns / The Politico:

Newt Gingrich: ‘This will be your campaign’ — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich plans to tell supporters in an email this morning that he will overcome the upheaval in his campaign and “carry the message of American renewal to every part of this great land, whatever it takes.”

Discussion: Political Insider, New York Magazine and The Moderate Voice

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
What the Newt Gingrich staff implosion means for the 2012 Republican race

Discussion: New York Magazine, Freakonomics and The Moderate Voice

The Note:
Newt Acknowledges ‘Strategic Differences’ Between Him and Departed campaign staff

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, TPMDC and ABCNEWS

Jonathan Martin / Reuters:
Newt Gingrich advisers resign en masse

Molly Ball / The Politico:

Rocky start for DNC chairwoman — Democrats knew they were getting an outspoken partisan when Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz took over the reins of the Democratic National Committee a month ago. — But they might not have known just how outspoken. — In the four weeks since she succeeded Tim Kaine …

Discussion: The Note, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air and RedState

New York Times:

Brash Style Alienates Weiner From Peers — Even as top Democrats intensified pressure on him to resign, Representative Anthony D. Weiner of New York tried to power through the day on Thursday and suggest things were getting back to normal. — “I'm going to go back to my community office …

Discussion: Balloon Juice and New York Magazine

Bernie Becker / The Hill:

House Dems to call for expiration of Bush tax rates in debt-limit deal — A group of House Democrats is calling for any deal to raise the debt ceiling to bring about the end of the Bush tax rates for the wealthy. — The lawmakers, led by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), also say that …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress and Hot Air

Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
Reeling from Ryan budget, GOP wary of debt deal vote

Discussion: The New Republic

Ylan Q. Mui / Washington Post:
GOP's Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader, stands by vow to block CFPB nominees

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Politico, ThinkProgress, New York Times and Reuters

Washington Post:

Stewardship? Or ideology? — The Republicans swept November's midterm election by making it highly ideological, a referendum on two years of hyper-liberalism — of arrogant, overreaching, intrusive government drowning in debt and running deficits of $1.5 trillion annually. It's not complicated.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Confluence

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Obama would romp Romney in Massachusettsm

Discussion: TPMDC and The Political Carnival

Chuck Bennett / New York Post:

Weiner can't afford to quit the DC day job — Even if scandal-stained Rep. Anthony Weiner didn't want to stay in office, he needs to stay in office. — Unlike many of his peers in the House, Weiner doesn't have a business or even a law degree to fall back on.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Jawa Report, New York Magazine, RADAR and JammieWearingFool

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Rule by Rentiers — The latest economic data have dashed any hope of a quick end to America's job drought, which has already gone on so long that the average unemployed American has been out of work for almost 40 weeks. Yet there is no political will to do anything about the situation.

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Rortybomb, Hullabaloo, TalkLeft, International Political … and Prairie Weather

Nicholas Watt / Guardian:

Sarah Palin snub by Margaret Thatcher aides infuriates US rightwing — Rush Limbaugh joins supporters accusing Thatcher's circle of disgracing former PM with ‘Palin is nuts’ comment — A firestorm on the US right has erupted after the Guardian reported that Sarah Palin will be denied …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Swampland, The Gateway Pundit, Shakesville, Salon, Boing Boing, The Caucus and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

Becky Bohrer / Associated Press:

Speculation on presidential run spurs national interest in Palin emails — FRIDAY: More than 24,000 pages will be available in Juneau. — JUNEAU — The state of Alaska will release thousands of Sarah Palin's emails from her first two years as governor today, a disclosure that has taken …

Discussion: Politisite and FrumForum

Andy Barr / The Politico:
Sarah Palin emails set for release

Discussion: The Note, Gawker, Guardian, americanthinker.com and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Dan Amira / New York Magazine:

God Caught Backing Multiple GOP Candidates for President — Photo: Cain:Steve Pope/Getty; Santorum: Jeff Fusco/Getty Images; Bachmann: Darren McCollester/Getty Images; sky: iStockphoto — After a thorough investigation, Daily Intel has discovered that God is separately backing …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wonkette, Outside the Beltway and Taegan Goddard's …

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Do more on jobs, Dems tell Obama — Senior Senate Democrats are growing frustrated by what they see as President Obama's passivity on the economy, and are beginning to discuss a large infrastructure package funded by tax increases. — Some Democrats, such as Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Raw Story, The New Republic, Scared Monkeys and FrumForum

Catherine Rampell / New York Times:

Companies Spend on Equipment, Not Workers — Companies that are looking for a good deal aren't seeing one in new workers. — Workers are getting more expensive while equipment is getting cheaper, and the combination is encouraging companies to spend on machines rather than people.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, The Awl, The Impolitic, Swampland, Pajamas Media and FrumForum

Wall Street Journal:

The Lone Star Jobs Surge — The Texas model added 37% of all net U.S. jobs since the recovery began. — Richard Fisher, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, dropped by our offices this week and relayed a remarkable fact: Some 37% of all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas.

Discussion: Pajamas Media and Betsy's Page

Josh Barro / City Journal:

Pawlenty's Fuzzy Budget Math — On Monday, presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty gave a major speech on economic policy in which he laid out his plan to get America's fiscal house back in order. The proposal, which includes huge cuts in personal income-tax rates and ambitious spending restraints …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, AmSpecBlog and The Daily Dish

Alan Cowell / New York Times:

Germany Says Bean Sprouts Likely E.Coli Source — BERLIN — After days of confusion, German authorities said Friday that they had finally narrowed down the most likely cause of one of the world's worst recorded E. coli infections to contaminated, home-grown bean-sprouts.

Discussion: TIME Healthland and Boing Boing

Patterico's Pontifications:

Evidence That Weiner Was Talking Dirty to Underage Girls? Part 3 — Early this morning I posted Evidence That Weiner Was Talking Dirty to Underage Girls? Part 2. In that post, I provided evidence that Weiner had discussions with an underage girl ("Ethel") regarding fighting for his country in a cape and tights.

Discussion: Pundit & Pundette, RedState, Michelle Malkin and Confederate Yankee

Ryan Alessi / cn|2 Politics:

Beshear leads Williams in Ky. governor's race by 21 points after ad blitz, cn| 2 poll shows — After airing ads for the last three weeks, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear posted a 21-point lead over the Republican challenger David Williams, according to the latest cn| 2 Poll.

Discussion: The Politico and Hotline On Call

Margalit Fox / New York Times:

Leonard B. Stern, Creator of Mad Libs, Dies at 88 — Leonard B. Stern, an Emmy-winning writer, producer and director for television whose frantic search for an adjective one day led him and a colleague to create Mad Libs, the game that asks players to fill in blanks with designated parts …

Discussion: Ricochet Conversation Feed

Pete Kasperowicz / Healthwatch:

Feinstein measure would give feds power to block increased health insurance rates — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is offering legislation to give officials the power to block health insurance rate increases. — Feinstein's proposal would change last year's healthcare law to give …

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Steven Erlanger / New York Times:

Ruling Favors a 10-Inch Citizen of France — PARIS — France was punished on Thursday for not taking proper care of its hamsters. — The Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the European Union's highest court, ruled Thursday that France had failed to protect the Great Hamster of Alsace …