Boehner to Establish Select Committee on Benghazi … WASHINGTON, DC - House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is announcing today that he intends for the House to vote to create a new select committee to investigate the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans.

Wayne County Clerk: John Conyers not qualified for Aug. 5 ballot  —  Congressman may have filed insufficient number of valid signatures to qualify for ballot … DETROIT -  —  Veteran U.S. Congressman John Conyers does not have enough signatures to get on the Aug. 5 primary ballot, according to Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett.

Wisconsin's GOP Secession Panic  —  Wisconsin Republicans are set to vote on a measure this weekend that would affirm the state's right to secede from the union.  Goodbye, U.S. of A., Hello U.S. of Cheese.  —  Fear not, America.  There will be no import taxes on Leinenkugel.

Newt Gingrich Calls For Public Ownership Of Professional Sports Teams  —  Newt Gingrich thinks the Clippers should be sold to fans.  That's a great idea!  —  CREDIT: AP  —  The wake of the NBA's decision to ban Donald Sterling for life and force him to sell the Los Angeles Clippers …

Judge says sexually assaulted 14-year-old 'wasn't the victim she claimed to be'  —  A man sentenced to five years probation by a Dallas County judge after admitting he raped a 14-year-old girl won't have to follow many of the restrictions typically given to sex offenders.

The GOP Has Finally Found a Way to Defeat the Tea Party  —  PINEHURST, N.C.—On a rainy afternoon a month before North Carolina's May 6 Republican primary, state House Speaker and Senate hopeful Thom Tillis was at the Pinehurst Resort and golf course, where the U.S. Open will be held later this year.

Man Who Set A Trap To Kill 17-Year-Old Intruder Invokes Stand Your Ground-Like Defense  —  Seventeen-year-old Diren Dede lost his life Sunday, while in Missoula, Montana on a high school exchange program from Germany.  He was shot dead at the home of Markus Kaarma, after Kaarma set a trap …

Damn Right I Taped Kerry's ‘Apartheid’ Talk  —  And if I had to do it all over again, I'd do it in the exact same way.  —  Ten years ago, when I was a rookie reporter for the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, I looked up to Joseph Nye as a sacred figure, the preeminent American expert on Japan.

Comfy Old Sweater  —  In a nice contrast to the New York Times piece about Republican donors wanting to get the band back together for Jeb Bush, the Cook Political Report's Amy Walter (speaking of “getting the band back together,” I didn't realize she had returned to the Cook shop) …

Time for Democrats to Stop Celebrating Andrew Jackson  —  In February, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), then the chairwoman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, wrote an impassioned letter to National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell expressing her disappointment with the league's stance …

Tea Party Challenge to McConnell Hits a Skid  —  LEXINGTON, Ky. — For Matt Bevin, the main challenger in the Republican primary to topple Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the campaign could be boiled down to this, his one chance to try to confront his opponent in person, in the crowded ballroom of a Marriott hotel.

Dozens die in Odessa blaze, rebels down Ukraine helicopters  —  (Reuters) - Dozens of people were killed in a fire and others were shot dead when fighting between pro- and anti-Russian groups broke out on the streets of Odessa on Ukraine's Black Sea coast on Friday.

A Bad Death in Oklahoma  —  The most telling moment in Oklahoma's botched execution of Clayton Lockett came six minutes after the purportedly lethal drugs had begun to enter the condemned man's body through an intravenous tube.  It was a moment that pointed up the contradictions, incoherence …

Midterm Calculus: Bursting the Democrats' Midterm-Turnout Bubble  —  Bursting the Democrats' Midterm-Turnout Bubble  —  Getting voters to the polls is harder than some flashy political-science experiments suggest.  —  STATISTICAL NOISE |  MAY 1, 6:48 AM  —  How Not to Be Misled by the Jobs Report