Updated at 5:10 EST with audio of the call.  —  Updated at 6:12pm EST with confirmation that the call did indeed come from the Santorum campaign  —  LANSING, MI — Rick Santorum's campaign is locked in a tight battle with Mitt Romney ahead of Tuesday's Michigan primary.

Santorum: Gas Prices Caused The 2008 Recession  —  Dubiously claims gas prices prevented people from paying their mortgages.  —  LANSING, Michigan—Rick Santorum sharpened his attack on President Barack Obama over rising gas prices, saying high energy prices caused the 2008 recession.

ACLU, CAIR call for probe into W.H. funding for Muslim surveillance  —  The American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations are separately calling for investigations into White House funding of a domestic spying program launched by the New York Police Department against Muslim-Americans.

GOP frets over 2012 knife fight  —  National Republican leaders are voicing increasing dismay over the course of the party's presidential primary, which has fallen into such a negative grind that they warn could cost them the White House.  —  At the core of their concern is the atmosphere …

Democrats target likely veep pick Sen. Rubio  —  Democrats have started to wage a political assault against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and the intensity of their attacks will intensify in the coming weeks.  —  Senior officials in the Democratic Party anticipate that Mitt Romney will win …

Initiative to legalize marijuana makes ballot in Colorado  —  Colorado voters in November will decide whether limited possession of marijuana for any purpose should be legalized.  —  If passed, the initiative would make Colorado the only state in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Gunmen attack police station, bank in nothern Nigeria  —  Gunmen hurled explosives and fired at a police station and a nearby bank in a northern Nigeria town Monday in another of daily attacks blamed on Islamist sect Boko Haram, witnesses said.  —  The attack in Jama'are …

Newt: We can't fix Afghanistan  —  Via POLITICO's Emily Schultheis, Newt Gingrich, assessing the problems in the Middle East, had this to say about Afghanistan:

Trashing Tricare  —  The Obama administration's proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers' benefits untouched.  The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials.

Stratfor Is a Joke and So Is Wikileaks for Taking It Seriously  —  The corporate research firm has branded itself as a CIA-like “global intelligence” firm, but only Julian Assange and some over-paying clients are fooled.  —  On June 2, 2009, Anya Alfano of Stratfor, which describes itself as a private …

Christianity gets less sensitive treatment than other religions admits BBC chief  — But added that religion as a whole should never receive the same ‘protection and sensitivity’ in the law as race  —  BBC director-general Mark Thompson has claimed Christianity is treated with far less sensitivity …

2012 or Never  —  Republicans are worried this election could be their last chance to stop history.  This is fear talking.  But not paranoia.  —  Of the various expressions of right-wing hysteria that have flowered over the past three years—goldbuggery, birtherism, death panels at home …

JOBS Act just what Obama ordered  —  America has always offered immense opportunity because innovators have had the ability to take risks, work hard and be rewarded for it.  Innovators, entrepreneurs and small-business people built the framework for American success, creating legacies lasting generations.

Berenstain Bears co-creator Jan Berenstain dies  —  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jan Berenstain, who with her husband, Stan, wrote and illustrated the Berenstain Bears books that have charmed preschoolers and their parents for 50 years, has died.  She was 88.  —  Berenstain, a longtime resident …

Occupy protesters accuse St Paul's of betrayal  —  City of London police say St Paul's gave them permission to remove activists from cathedral steps during eviction  —  St Paul's Cathedral has been accused of “betraying” Occupy London activists after giving the City of London police permission …

Rep. Issa Concedes His All-Male Anti-Contraception Hearing Was Not ‘My Greatest Success’  —  Eight days after getting roundly-chastised for holding an all-male anti-contraception, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) admitted on Friday that the episode did not go as well as he expected.

Media Matters boss paid former partner $850G ‘blackmail’ settlement  —  Media Matters chief David Brock paid a former domestic partner $850,000 after being threatened with damaging information involving the organization's donors and the IRS - a deal that Brock later characterized as a blackmail payment …

Alabama Bill Could Require Women To Undergo Invasive Ultrasound To Convince Them ‘To Keep The Child’  —  When a woman in Alabama seeks an abortion procedure, she already has to sign that her doctor has performed an ultrasound and that she either viewed the ultrasound image or rejected seeing it.