memeorandum: Breaking: Envelope tests positive for ricin at Washington mail facility (CNN)

7:15 PM ET, April 16, 2013

Top Items:

Second Boston Marathon victim identified: Krystle Campbell — A second victim in the Boston Marathon bombings has been identified: Krystle M. Campbell, a 29-year-old originally from Medford, Mass. — Her father, William A. Campbell Jr., told Yahoo News he's in shock that his daughter was killed.

Discussion: CNN, The Jawa Report, Weasel Zippers, Riehl World News, Deadspin, Guardian, Business Insider, Shakesville, BuzzFeed, Macleans.ca and The Hinterland Gazette

Mark Landler / New York Times:

Bomb Details Emerge in Boston Case — BOSTON — The explosives used to kill three people and injure 176 at the Boston Marathon on Monday were likely some kind of “pressure-cooker” devices that sent sharp bits of shrapnel flying into victims in the vicinity of the blast, several law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Discussion: CBS News, Associated Press, CNN, The Jawa Report, U.S. News, justoneminute.typepad.com, US News, Yahoo! News, CBS Boston, The Raw Story, Gothamist, Hot Air, Deadspin, The Week, Daily Kos, Atlas Shrugs and The Mahablog

Greg Miller / Washington Post:

Injured Saudi is a witness, not a suspect, in Boston bombing — U.S. law enforcement officials said Tuesday that a Saudi national injured in the Boston Marathon bombing is regarded as a witness, not a suspect. — The Saudi, who is recuperating at a Boston hospital, is in his 20s …

Discussion: USA Today, Weasel Zippers, Firedoglake and Outside the Beltway

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:

Jack Kingston urged Guard ‘take a pass’ on Boston Marathon — A year ago, Rep. Jack Kingston was so concerned about the National Guard's shriveling budget that he wanted it to “take a pass” on major events like “the Boston Marathon.” — The Georgia Republican pleaded with the guard's leaders …

Discussion: Daily Kos and Yahoo! News

Jim Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:

PHOTOS of SAUDI NATIONAL Person of Interest in Boston Custody ...Update: Saudi Ruled Out as Suspect — Here is the Facebook page of the Saudi national guarded by federal agents at a Boston hospital. — Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi — The name was released by Townhall and Free Republic.

Discussion: New York Post, nation.foxnews.com, CBS News, CANNONFIRE, Weasel Zippers, Wonkette, freerepublic.com, The Hinterland Gazette, Little Green Footballs, Riehl World News, Joe. My. God. and Jihad Watch

Bridget Johnson / The PJ Tatler:

An Al-Shabaab Link to Boston Marathon Bombings? — A series of Twitter gloats today raised questions about the possible involvement of Somali terror group Al-Shabaab in the Boston Marathon bombing. — No person or group has yet directly taken responsibility for the attack that killed three and wounded 176, 17 of those critically.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Weasel Zippers and Washington Free Beacon

Larry Celona / New York Post:

FBI grills Saudi man in Boston bombings — ‘Smells of gunpowder’ — An FBI investigator examines a bag inside an apartment in Revere, in a building on the street where a man being questioned in the bomb attack lives. — Police took a 20-year-old Saudi national into custody near the scene …

Discussion: Reuters, FBI, Associated Press, Guardian, Atlas Shrugs, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, MyFoxBoston, Jihad Watch, The PJ Tatler, The Lonely Conservative and Riehl World News

CNN:
CNN's GUT CHECK for April 16, 2013

Discussion: RealClearPolitics Video Log, Associated Press and Politico

Jake Sherman / Politico:
After Boston, Dems decry sequester

Discussion: CNN and Weasel Zippers

Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed:
Militia Groups Denounce Boston Marathon Attack

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Hot Air

Kate Kowsh / New York Post:
Roommate calls Saudi national ‘quiet and clean;’ number of injuries rises to over 170

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, Guardian, The Gateway Pundit, The PJ Tatler, Deadspin, The Right Scoop, The Hinterland Gazette and Jihad Watch

Carl Weiser / Politics Extra:
Schmidt: 'I've never been so close to death'

Discussion: The Boston Globe, The Fix, The Hill and Yahoo! News

Associated Press:
AP source: Boston Marathon bombs built out of pressure cookers packed with shrapnel

Discussion: WorldViews, Guardian, The Week and Mediaite

Richard Spencer / Telegraph:
Boston Marathon bombs: al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine taught pressure cooker bomb-making techniques

Discussion: Clayton Cramer's Blog

Leah Barkoukis / Townhall.com:
FBI Press Conference: “This Will be a Worldwide Investigation”

Discussion: Fox News, The Daily Caller and Fox News Insider

Jimmy Golen / Associated Press:
FBI SEEKS IMAGES IN BOSTON MARATHON BOMB INQUIRY

Discussion: New Orleans Times-Picayune and Firedoglake

Mike Konczal / nextnewdeal.net:

Researchers Finally Replicated Reinhart-Rogoff, and There Are Serious Problems. — In 2010, economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff released a paper, “Growth in a Time of Debt.” Their “main result is that...median growth rates for countries with public debt over 90 percent of GDP …

Discussion: The Hill, ThinkProgress, Paul Krugman, American Prospect, Marginal Revolution, Jared Bernstein, Wonkblog, FP Passport, Business Insider, The National Memo, The Big Picture, A plain blog about politics, Corrente and Hullabaloo

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

Is The Reinhart-Rogoff Result Based on a Simple Spreadsheet Error? — So this is huge. Or, rather, it won't matter even a tiny little bit but it ought to be a big deal anyway. You've probably heard that countries with a high debt:GDP ratio suffer from slow economic growth.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Tell and Gawker

peri.umass.edu:
Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogof

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Business Insider, Real Time Economics, Economix, Economist's View, The Big Picture and Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire

CEPR: How Much Unemployment Was Caused by Reinhart and Rogoff's Arithmetic Mistake?

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

Senate at war over Thatcher resolution — Senate Republicans and Democrats are in an intense battle over the contents of a resolution to honor former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died last week and will be laid to rest on Wednesday. — The fight has prompted Senate Foreign …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Outside the Beltway and The PJ Tatler

James Chapman / Daily Mail:

Obama's snub to Thatcher: President won't send envoy to funeral - and leaves it to her old allies from the Reagan era — President Obama made decision not to send a member of his administration before yesterday's bombings in Boston — Instead, Reagan's former Secretary of State George Shultz …

Discussion: National Review, The Lonely Conservative, The PJ Tatler, Ricochet Conversations Feed and Ed Driscoll

Ian McKellen / Sir Ian McKellen:
Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013 — The official obituaries have been …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Gay Star News and Joe. My. God.

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
No White House envoy to Thatcher funeral? Update: Boehner sending House delegation

Discussion: AmmoLand.com Shooting …, Naked DC and Heritage Action for America

Peter Walker / Guardian:
Margaret Thatcher funeral: US opts for low-key official representation

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Axelrod: Obama Thinks Boston Bombings Could Be Related to ‘Tax Day’ — In explaining why President Obama didn't call the Boston bombings a “terrorist attack,” former adviser David Axelrod said, “I'm sure what was going through the president's mind is — we really don't know who did this — it was tax day”:

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, The Lonely Conservative, The PJ Tatler, Jihad Watch and Conservatives4Palin

CNN:
Why terrorist bombings have been rare in U.S. in past decade

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
What Obama's learned about talking about terror

Discussion: CNN

Scott Shane / New York Times:

U.S. Practiced Torture After 9/11, Nonpartisan Review Concludes — WASHINGTON — A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Guardian, ACS Blog, The Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog, Booman Tribune, The Reaction and Shakesville

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

How out of touch is today's GOP? — I already touched on today's new Post poll this morning, but there are a bunch of numbers in here that really deserve their own post. — To wit: It finds that only 23 percent of Americans — that would be fewer than one in four — believe the Republican Party is …

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Taegan Goddard's … and The Fix

Washington Post:
April 2013 Post-ABC poll - economy, gun control, and immigration issues

Discussion: The Fix, Daily Kos, The National Memo, Hot Air and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Jeffrey Goldberg / Bloomberg:

Obama's Second Term Already Looks Like a Failure — President Barack Obama's second term has so far been a story of high liberal hopes and scant liberal achievements. — The president has been re-elected, demographic trends favor the growth of his coalition, his party has a technological edge …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, National Review and American Prospect

Breanna Edwards / Politico:

Report: 2 escorted off Boston plane — Officials in Boston are taking no chances, a day after the tragedy at the Boston Marathon — including on flights out of nearby Logan Airport. — A plane headed to Chicago was brought back to the gate at Logan Airport, after some passengers …

Discussion: MyFoxBoston, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Bloomberg and msnbc.com

Tom Kington / Los Angeles Times:

Pope Francis reaffirms crackdown on U.S. nuns — The pontiff backs a Vatican assessment last year that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was promoting ‘radical feminist themes.’ — A nun watches Pope Francis hold Mass in Vatican City last month before his first Easter message.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Shakesville and Washington Monthly

Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:
Pope Upholds Reprimand of American Nuns' Group

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and The Agonist

CNN:

Breaking: Envelope tests positive for ricin at Washington mail facility — Washington (CNN) - An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin was intercepted Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol's off-site mail facility in Washington, congressional and law enforcement sources tell CNN.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Hot Air and Business Insider

Susan Tran / WHDH-TV:

EXCLUSIVE: New pics from moments before, after blasts — BOSTON (WHDH) — Photos sent to 7News by a viewer show the scene just before and right after the bombs went off on Boylston Street. — 7News has provided these pictures to the FBI as they continue their investigation.

Discussion: Riehl World News

Katherine Connell / National Review:

After Boston, Congressman Urges Caution on Immigration Reform — Representative Steve King of Iowa, a prominent House conservative, says Congress should be cautious about rushing immigration reform, especially after Monday's bombing in Boston, where three people were killed.