memeorandum: Senate Passes $3.7 Trillion Budget, Its First in 4 Years (Jonathan Weisman/New York Times)

11:10 AM ET, March 23, 2013

Top Items:

Zack Colman / E2-Wire:

Keystone XL picks up Senate backing — The Senate on Friday voted 62-37 to approve the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline in an amendment to Senate budget. — Sen. John Hoeven's (R-N.D.) amendment was largely symbolic, but served as a clear statement that the Senate backs the pipeline.

Discussion: Politico, Booman Tribune, The Agonist, Daily Kos and Yahoo! News

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Senate on record opposing use of chained CPI — The Senate voted Friday night to oppose cutting entitlement benefits for veterans using a new method of calculating inflation. — President Obama has put the new method, known as chained consumer price index, on the table in deficit talks with Republicans.

Discussion: CNN and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Ginger Gibson / Politico:

Senate passes budget — first for four years — In the early morning hours Saturday after almost 13 continuous hours of voting, the Senate passed a budget resolution for the first time in nearly four years. — The proposal, which Democratic drafters say will reduce the deficit …

Jordy Yager / The Hill:

Obama presses Congress to vote on assault weapons ban — President Obama in his weekly address urged both chambers of Congress to hold a vote on a series of gun-control measures, including the controversial assault weapons ban and a limit on magazine sizes.

Discussion: CNN

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Senate passes its first budget in four years on 50 to 49 vote — The Senate early Saturday passed its first budget in four years by a vote of 50 to 49. — The close vote was a big victory for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) …

Discussion: The Hill

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

Senate Passes $3.7 Trillion Budget, Its First in 4 Years — WASHINGTON — After a grueling, all-night debate that ended close to 5 a.m., the Senate on Saturday adopted its first budget in four years, a $3.7 trillion blueprint for 2014 that would fast-track passage of tax increases …

Discussion: The Hill, Talking Points Memo, CNN and Outside the Beltway

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Most Senate Dems Join GOP Push To Repeal Obamacare Tax

Discussion: The Plum Line

Laura Bassett / The Huffington Post:

North Dakota Personhood Measure Passes State House — North Dakota became the first state on Friday to pass a fetal personhood amendment, which grants legal personhood rights to embryos from the moment of fertilization. The state House of Representatives voted 57 to 35 to pass the amendment …

Discussion: Gawker and ThinkProgress

Laura Bassett / The Huffington Post:
North Dakota Republican Pols To Protest Anti-Abortion Laws: ‘We Have Stepped Over The Line’

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Atlantic Online and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

TIME:

FAA To Close 149 Air Traffic Towers Under Cuts — (CHICAGO) — Under orders to trim hundreds of millions of dollars from its budget, the Federal Aviation Administration released a final list Friday of 149 air traffic control facilities that it will close at small airports around the country starting early next month.

Discussion: The National Memo

CNN:
FAA: 149 control towers to close

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Daily Kos

Daily Mail:

Massachusetts lawmaker 'took pictures of his genitals and put them on a female coworker's computer' — A state representative in Massachussetts is being investigated after allegedly sending pictures of his genitals to a government computer. — The investigation is ongoing and the committee …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Other McCain, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Caller

Annie-Rose Strasser / ThinkProgress:

New York City Cop Testifies That He Was Told To Target Young Black Men — As hearings are under way to investigate New York City's stop and frisk policy, one police officer is testifying that he was told by superiors to target young black men between the ages of 14 and 21.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, NY Daily News, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Prairie Weather and New York Times

Jenna Portnoy / New Jersey Online:

Gov. Christie says he does not believe in gay conversion therapy — Gov. Chris Christie speaks in Edison earlier this month. Christie said today he doesn't believe in gay conversion therapy. (Photo by Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger) — TRENTON — Under pressure from Democrats …

Discussion: PinkNews.co.uk, msnbc.com, Gay Star News, ABCNEWS and Joe. My. God.

Katie Glueck / Politico:

Miss Israel: Obama ‘world-class hunk’ — President Barack Obama has earned a new title: world-class hunk. — That was the assessment of Miss Israel, the 21-year-old Ethiopian immigrant Titi Aynaw who met Obama on Thursday. — “He's an exciting man, a world-class hunk …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Hinterland Gazette

Ross Douthat:

Late Marriage and Its Consequences — On Wednesday I had the privilege of joining a Brookings Institution event organized around the new report “Knot Yet: The Benefits and Costs of Delayed Marriage,” which tries to tease out the social implications of the steadily rising age of first marriage …

Jim Treacher / The Daily Caller:

Andy at Ace of Spades has made an interesting discovery. Here's Matthew Yglesias last September: … Silly wingnuts. You didn't build that, and you don't own that. The government is just letting you borrow it. — Speaking of “property” that doesn't really exist, Washingtonian.com reports:

Discussion: rubber hose, National Review, City Desk, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Twitchy

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

Genachowski Announces Resignation as F.C.C. Chairman — The resignation on Friday of Julius Genachowski after four years as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission again raises a thorny issue for President Obama: whether it will be possible to get the F.C.C. or Congress to help …

Discussion: The White House, TIME, The Week and Gizmodo, more at Mediagazer »

Public Knowledge:
Public Knowledge Responds to FCC Chair Resignation

Discussion: The Verge, The Raw Story, The Daily Caller, The BLT and Politico

The Scrapbook / Weekly Standard:

How Now Chairman Mao? — The Scrapbook doesn't spend a lot of its time surfing tired bureaucratic websites that look like relics of the 1990s, but our interest was piqued last week by a quotation on the “Kids' Zone” page of the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics …

Discussion: Ed Driscoll

Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:

Donald Trump Trashes Michelle Malkin On Twitter: You're A ‘Dummy’ And ‘Were Born Stupid’ — So... looks like Michelle Malkin and Donald Trump are having a good ol' Twitter spat. — Malkin's conservative Twitter aggregator site Twitchy took to calling the real estate mogul and recent CPAC speaker Trump a “conservafraud.”

Discussion: NewsHounds blog

Fox News:

Exclusive: Syrian with ties to 9/11 hijackers still in US, virtually immune from deportation — Free to do as he pleases, living out his days in the suburbs of northern New Jersey, a Syrian national who is a known associate of the 9/11 hijackers never has to worry about deportation by the U.S. government …

Discussion: Jihad Watch

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

The New Republic Fires Timothy Noah — On Thursday, New Republic columnist Timothy Noah received an email from editor Frank Foer asking him to meet at 2:30 pm on Friday. During the meeting, Foer told Noah that he was out of a job. — When Noah got to the New Republic's lobby …

Discussion: Media Decoder and Politico, more at Mediagazer »