memeorandum: House Democrats' committee sitting on $40M fund (Philip Elliott/MiamiHerald.com)

8:20 AM ET, April 16, 2014

Top Items:

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Bloomberg Plans a $50 Million Challenge to the N.R.A. — Michael R. Bloomberg, making his first major political investment since leaving office, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Weekly Standard, Washington Post, Hot Air, Real Clear Politics, The Week, Fox News, Business Insider and RedState

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

Liberals in rose-colored glasses consider ObamaCare a ‘victory’ — Ever since ObamaCare supposedly hit the arbitrary target of 7 million sign-ups by March 31, its supporters have been taking the most premature victory lap since conservative proponents of the Iraq War (like me) …

Discussion: Liberal Values

Robert Pear / New York Times:

Census Survey Revisions Mask Health Law Effects — WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau, the authoritative source of health insurance data for more than three decades, is changing its annual survey so thoroughly that it will be difficult to measure the effects of President Obama's health care law …

Sarah Kliff / Vox:
Don't freak out about the changes to the Census yet

Discussion: Bloomberg View, National Review, BuzzFeed, RedState, The Incidental Economist, Hit & Run and Marginal REVOLUTION

Paul Lewis / Guardian:

Ukraine on the brink as troops take on rebels — Vladimir Putin denounces Kiev for mobilising forces against pro-Russian gunmen in east of country — Alec Luhn in Kramatorsk, Paul Lewis in Washington and Julian Borger — Ukrainian government forces launched their first significant military action …

Discussion: Infowars, kyivpost.com and Liberaland

Anthony Faiola / Washington Post:
Ukraine says it is launching counteroffensive; Russia's PM says nation on brink of civil war

Discussion: New York Times, The Voice of Russia, News, RT, Gawker, Guardian, kyivpost.com, Hot Air and Reuters

Kyiv Post:
Ukrainian troops in control of Donetsk Oblast's Kramatorsk airfield, Ukrainian deputy prime minister …

Discussion: Mashable, Weasel Zippers, Hit & Run, Mediaite, CNN, The Gateway Pundit and Fox News

Orin Kerr / Washington Post:

Chemerinsky and Menkel-Meadow on curricular reform — In the New York Times, Erwin Chemerinsky and Carrie Menkel-Meadow offer a very sunny perspective on the current state of legal education. At the end, they argue that what law schools really need these days is curricular innovation:

New York Times:
Don't Skimp on Legal Training

Discussion: Above the Law and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Paul Campos / Lawyers, Guns & Money:
They wouldn't print it if it wasn't true

Discussion: Eschaton

Barbara Starr / CNN:

Video shows large al Qaeda meeting in Yemen — Washington (CNN) — A new video shows what looks like the largest and most dangerous gathering of al Qaeda in years. And the CIA and the Pentagon either didn't know about it or couldn't get a drone there in time to strike.

Discussion: Politico and Ed Driscoll

CNN:

U.S. right wing extremists more deadly than jihadists — Deadly shootings in Kansas City suburb … (CNN) — On Sunday, a man shot and killed a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and then drove to a nearby Jewish retirement community where he shot and killed a third person.

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, NewsBusters, MichelleMalkin.com, Liberaland, The Daily Caller and emptywheel

Wall Street Journal:

Coalition of the Disappointed — Obama fires up racial and gender resentments to get out the vote. — You can tell it's an election year because so many noncrises are suddenly urgent priorities. Real median household income is still lower than it was in 2007, the smallest share of Americans …

Discussion: Instapundit

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Obama chops 3 1/2 years off pot sentence

Discussion: CNN

New York Times:

New York Drops Unit That Spied on Muslims — The New York Police Department has abandoned a secretive program that dispatched plainclothes detectives into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop on conversations and built detailed files on where people ate, prayed and shopped, the department said.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Gothamist, Power Line, The Verge, Mashable, Gawker, Talking Points Memo, Liberaland, The Week and Independent Journal Review

Philip Elliott / MiamiHerald.com:

House Democrats' committee sitting on $40M fund — WASHINGTON — Donors gave more than $10 million in March to the committee tasked with electing House Democrats and helped it amass a $40 million fund to fight skepticism that Republicans can be ousted from their majority in November.

Philip Elliott / Associated Press:
Democrats Have Outside Money Advantage - for Now

Discussion: Power Line and Politico

UO Matters:

UO law school prof angry about plan to use his raise for student fellowships — 4/14/2014: Several members of the law school email lists (which included staff, secretaries etc.) have forwarded these two emails from professor Rob Illig (Law) about a plan apparently floated by Law Dean Michael Moffitt …

Discussion: Above the Law, Lawyers, Guns & Money, ProfessorBainbridge.com and Eschaton

Paul Caron / TaxProf Blog:
Oregon Law Prof Objects to Shifting Funds for Faculty Raises to Public Interest Jobs for Students

Discussion: Instapundit

Bailey Elise McBride / Associated Press:

Fallin signs minimum wage hike ban in Oklahoma — OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Cities across Oklahoma are now prohibited from establishing mandatory minimum wage or vacation and sick-day requirements under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Mary Fallin. — Supporters say the measure would prevent …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Daily Caller, RT and Independent Journal Review

Deanreddington / CBS Boston:

Source: Bag Detonated In Boston Contained Rice Cooker, Confetti — BOSTON (CBS) - On the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, Boylston Street was evacuated and two bags were detonated by the Bomb Squad near the finish line. — One of the bags was being carried by a barefoot man …

Discussion: The Other McCain, Independent Journal Review, Business Insider, The Raw Story, Gawker, CBS New York, RT and Mashable

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Matt Taibbi: ‘Hands Down’ Bush Was Tougher On Corporate America Than Obama (VIDEO) — Muckraking polemicist Matt Taibbi said that when it comes to the last two presidents, there's no question who did a better job of holding America's tycoons accountable. — The former Rolling Stone writer …

Discussion: The Daily Banter

Democracy Now:
Who Goes to Jail? Matt Taibbi on American Injustice Gap from Wall Street to Main Street

Discussion: Infowars and The Week

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Rumsfeld Has ‘Absolutely No Idea’ If He Filed His Taxes Correctly — Donald Rumsfeld got his taxes filed in time. Just don't ask him if they were done correctly. — In a letter sent Tuesday to the Internal Revenue Service, Rumsfeld said he has “absolutely no idea” whether his family's tax returns …

Discussion: Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite and OnPolitics

Adam Sneed / Politico:

Cliven Bundy and BLM: 10 things to know — Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has reignited the debate about federal power and states' rights: When the Bureau of Land Management seized nearly 400 cattle belonging to Bundy for grazing on federal land without a permit, protesters gathered in a remote part …

Discussion: Liberaland, Fox News, PoliticusUSA and Washington Post

Bruce Smith / Associated Press:

Sen. Ted Cruz: Too Early to Worry About 2016 — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz says it's too early to be thinking about 2016 and that he's working right now to make sure his party regains control of the Senate this year. — Cruz is visiting South Carolina, which hosts the first GOP presidential primary in the South.

Discussion: Politico