The Proposition 8 oral argument  —  Much will be written about the Proposition 8 oral argument.  The bottom line, in my opinion, is that the Court probably will not have the five votes necessary to get to any result at all, and almost certainly will not have five votes to decide the merits of whether Proposition 8 is constitutional.

Banking gavel could fall to Wall Street critic  —  Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), one of Wall Street's harshest critics, could end up leading the Senate Banking Committee if Democrats retain control of the Senate in 2014.  —  Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), who has led the Banking Committee since 2011 …

South Carolina special a toss up  —  PPP's first look at the special election in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District finds a toss up race.  Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch leads Republican Mark Sanford 47-45 and ties Curtis Bostic at 43.  —  This is a Republican leaning district …

Obama to name Julia Pierson as new Secret Service director  —  President Obama will appoint Julia Pierson, a veteran U.S. Secret Service agent and senior official, as the first female director of the agency, White House officials said Tuesday.  —  Pierson, 53, began her career in the Secret Service …

More than a Vacation a Month for Obamas in 2013  —  In the first three months of the year, members of the first family have been on three vacations, averaging a vacation a month.  And now it's being reported that the first daughters are on a spring break vacation in the Bahamas.

CNN Demolishes Obama's ‘High-Speed Rail Boondoggle’  —  On his CNN show last night, Anderson Cooper profiled the Obama administration's unfulfilled promises and wasteful spending on high-speed rail projects across the country.  Cooper and investigative reporter Drew Griffin highlighted …

The Killing Chain  —  Let's say you were writing a novel about a homicide.  You'd want to describe the killer's neighborhood and family background.  You'd want to describe his school, his culture and his gang.  —  You'd want to describe how he got into crime, his prior arrests …

Poll: Support for stricter gun control wanes  —  Poll analysis by Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto and Fred Backus  —  Soon after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced an assault weapons ban would not be part of a gun control bill, a new CBS News poll shows support …

Despite Abortion Bans, TRAP Law Is the Real Threat to Abortion Access in North Dakota (UPDATED) … “Personhood,” heartbeat bans, forcing women to give birth to babies diagnosed with genetic anomalies that make them unlikely to survive long after birth, if they make it that long …

The Weeklies  —  From the outside, it is hard to know that people live in the Ramada Inn.  The parking lot is always empty.  The hotel sits facing a wide suburban boulevard called Kipling Street, just off Interstate 70 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.  The interchange where Kipling meets the freeway …

North Korea threatens Hawaii and U.S. mainland  —  NORTH KOREA THREAT  —  North Korea, which has missiles capable of hitting U.S. territories in the Pacific and possibly mainland USA, has ordered its rocket and long-range artillery units to be combat ready after joint military drills by U.S. and South Korean forces.