The worst excuse ever: The Rhodes memo debacle  —  The White House damage control on the latest batch of Benghazi emails is not going well.  The White House's belated release of the documents at the very least show it has been actively evading legitimate congressional requests for relevant information.

Antonin Scalia's Blunder Is Unprecedented, Legal Experts Say  —  Justice Antonin Scalia's factual error in a dissenting opinion Tuesday has become the talk of the legal community as experts puzzle over the extraordinary nature of the Reagan-appointed justice's blunder, which the Supreme Court quietly corrected as of Wednesday morning.

Biking with Bush: Former president opens up about veterans, Jeb 2016  —  Crawford, Texas (CNN) - It is not an easy ride.  —  The rugged 100-kilometer mountain bike ride cuts through the Texas hill country and was designed to keep a fitness freak on his toes.

U.S. Department of Education Releases List of Higher Education Institutions with Open Title IX Sexual Violence Investigations  —  Contact: Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov  —  The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released today a list …

John Oliver on ‘Last Week Tonight,’ Turning Down CBS, and ‘Nauseating’ American Politics  —  The newly minted host of HBO's ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ sat down to discuss his new gig, the strange state of U.S. politics, and more over coffee.  —  “I'm still getting used to this whole interview thing,” says John Oliver.

GOP State Lawmaker Writes Letter To Editor About Dangers Of Anal Sex  —  Black GOPer: Bundy Just Telling The Truth  —  Mitch Boxes In Tea Party Rival With Joint Pledge To Back GOP Nominee  —  Bundy Supporter: Harry Reid May Get His ‘Balls Ripped Off’  —  ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws Tested In Recent Killings

This Town Needs a Better Class of Racist  —  The question Cliven Bundy put to his audience last week—Was the black family better off as property?—is as immoral as it unoriginal.  As both Adam Serwer and Jamelle Bouie point out, the roster of conservative theorists who imply that black people …

General: Military should've tried to rescue Benghazi Americans  —  WASHINGTON — U.S. military personnel knew early on that the Benghazi attack was a “hostile action” and not a protest gone awry, according to a retired general who served at U.S. Africa Command's headquarters in Germany during the attack.

Rob Ford did cocaine on wild night, witnesses say  —  Mayor Rob Ford's latest spiral into substance abuse began just over a month ago at a party in an exclusive Exhibition Place club.  —  Toronto Mayor Rob Ford leave his home early on May 1, 2014.  —  Photos View photos  — zoom

Limbaugh To CBS Chief Over Colbert: I'm The ‘Mayor of Realville’  —  Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Thursday responded to CBS chief executive's comment that Stephen Colbert is not too liberal to host the “Late Show.”  —  When CBS first announced that the Comedy Central host …

Obamacare Is Getting the Benghazi Treatment, Courtesy of House Republicans  —  House Republicans just put out a new report on the Affordable Care Act.  You should take is as seriously as you take all reports from House Republicans these days.  —  In other words, you shouldn't take it seriously.

Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S.  —  Seattle will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour over the coming years under a deal brokered by Mayor Ed Murray and blessed by labor and business groups alike, city leaders announced Thursday afternoon.

Vatican to debate teachings on divorce, birth control, gay unions  —  Pope Francis meets with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, left, at the Vatican.  On the pontiff's orders, the Vatican will convene a meeting of senior clerics this fall to reexamine church teachings that touch the most intimate aspects of people's lives.

Teacher Contract Offers City a Map for Other Labor Deals  —  Mayor Bill de Blasio, confronting the unsettled labor agreements that have loomed over his first months in office, announced a deal on Thursday with New York City's largest teachers' union that would raise wages by 18 percent …

Fox News Brands Scientific American Editor A ‘Coward’ (VIDEO)  —  A Scientific American editor must have struck a nerve over at Fox News this week when he tweeted about having a “Fox & Friends” producer shoot down his idea to talk about the impacts of climate change on the show.

Findings of the Big Data and Privacy Working Group Review  —  Over the past several days, severe storms have battered Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and other states.  Dozens of people have been killed and entire neighborhoods turned to rubble and debris as tornadoes have touched down across the region.

Germany blocks Edward Snowden from testifying in person in NSA inquiry  —  Officials say a personal invitation for US whistleblower to attend hearing would put ‘grave strain’ on US-German relations  —  The German government has blocked Edward Snowden from giving personal evidence in front …

Victims of Communism Day  —  Today is May Day.  Since 2007, I have advocated using this date as an international Victims of Communism Day.  I outlined the rationale for this idea (which I did not originate) in my very first post on the subject: … Our relative neglect of communist crimes carries a real cost.