The Journal Becomes Fox-ified  —  It's official.  The Wall Street Journal has been Fox-ified.  —  It took Rupert Murdoch only three and a half years to get there, starting with the moment he acquired the paper from the dysfunctional Bancroft family in December 2007, a purchase that was completed …

Panic at the White House?  Gloomy Goldman Sachs sees high unemployment, possible recession  —  Last night in a new report, Democrat-friendly Goldman Sachs dropped an economic bomb on President Obama's chances for reelection (bold is mine): … Alarms bells must be ringing all over Obamaland today.

Obama's Haul: Big Money From Big Donors  —  Twenty-seven fund-raisers collected more than $500,000 each in contributions for President Obama and the Democratic Party in the past three months, helping Mr. Obama collect a record haul of campaign cash as he starts his re-election effort.

Obama Eliminates Warren as Consumer Head  —  President Barack Obama has chosen a candidate other than Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person briefed on the matter.  —  The president's choice is a person who already works at the consumer agency, the person said today.

House Republicans brace for compromise on debt  —  GOP leaders turn to their most trusted budget expert, Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), to explain to the rank and file what could happen if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.  —  Reporting from Washington— Republican leaders in the House …

Michele Bachmann leaves church accused of anti-Catholic bias  —  Taking a page from President Obama's political playbook, Michele Bachmann has formally left a church in Minnesota accused of holding anti-Catholic views.  —  According to CNN, the church that Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus …

Elizabeth Warren: Government Hasn't Sufficiently Probed Foreclosure Abuses (VIDEO) … WASHINGTON — A top Obama administration official on Thursday questioned the scope of the state and federal investigations into alleged mortgage abuses and “illegal” foreclosures perpetrated …

The Political Economy of the Lesser Depression  —  Everyone in the forecasting business is scrambling to mark down both their estimates of second-quarter growth and their forecasts for later in the year.  Goldman Sachs (no link) was pretty optimistic a few months ago; now they've grown quite pessimistic:

Mitt Romney's cash advantage  —  Kasie Hunt does the math: … One of the more than incidental benefits to treading light in Iowa is that Romney will probably be able to keep a relatively low burn rate for much of the summer.  At the end of the quarter, Pawlenty had just $1.4 million …

Dalai Lama to visit W.H. on Saturday  —  Part of the Dalai Lama's Washington visit will include a White House visit.  —  AP Photo  —  The White House announced late Friday that President Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama at the White House on Saturday, finally putting an end …

For First Time, Majority in U.S. Supports Public Smoking Ban  —  Little support for making smoking illegal, however  —  PRINCETON, NJ — A majority of Americans (59%) support a ban on smoking in all public places for the first time since Gallup initially asked the question in 2001.

Perry's Briefing  —  Word in Austin is that Rick Perry is doing everything necessary to prepare for a presidential run, including brushing up on foreign policy.  —  We hear that he recently met with top national-security experts Doug Feith and William Luti.

‘Ex-gay’ conference headed to St. Paul in 2012  —  Amid news that Rep. Michele Bachmann's Christian counseling clinic performs therapy aimed at “curing” gays and lesbians of homosexuality, the nation's largest “ex-gay” organization, Exodus International, announced it will hold its annual conference …