Club for Growth:

Facebook’s CEO calls it a “really good start.”

Rasmussen:

Men are more behind on their taxes than women. Thirty-six percent (36%) of men have yet to file, compared to 26% of women. But among those last-minute filers, men (73%) are more likely to say they will file by April 15 than women (60%), with an equal number of both planning to seek extensions. Women are more than twice as likely as men to be unsure at this point if they will make the deadline or seek an extension.

One-third (33%) of those who earn more than $100,000 a year have not yet filed including 10% who plan to seek an extension.

Politico:

A Palin spokeswoman told the Anchorage Daily News, which had the story first, that speculation about a possible Palin-Murkowski matchup was “just something that’s been drummed up by the media.”

In fact, she said, the governor planned to hold a fundraiser sometime after Alaska’s legislative session ends on April 19.

The Scorecard:

In the still-undecided NY-20 special election, where Republican Jim Tedisco currently holds a 17-vote lead over Democrat Scott Murphy, the NRCC points to the party breakdown of the absentee ballots already returned as evidence things are looking good for their guy.

According to the state board of elections, 3,111 of the absentee ballots as of Tuesday returned are from Republicans and 2,394 are from Democrats.

Redstate:

NPR interviews Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) about the Congressional Black Caucus’s visit to Cuba. Brown’s comments have gotten little play and, in fact, what should have been the money quote is totally ignored by NPR.

At the 2 minute mark in the interview, the reporter Melissa Block asks, “Well, Congressman, you well know that supporters of current Cuba policy, supporters of the embargo, say if you lift sanctions you are going to just aid and justify a repressive regime, you are going to kill any hope of democracy - that regime will just use more resources to become more oppressive than it already is.”

Cleaver: “Well, the world operates at its best when there’s diversity. Every nation does not need to be like the United States. And, frankly, we already have ties to diplomatic nations. And, frankly, if there is repression in Cuba we didn’t see it.”

Block points out that Cleaver did not meet with any Cuban dissidents at all during the entire trip. Cleaver’s response was that “it’s not going to be helpful for us to throw our fingers in the face of the Cuban leadership while we’re saying to them dialogue is possible.”

NY Observer:

Just how much is The Globe losing The Times? Executives told union leaders that the paper lost $50 million last year, and would lose $85 million this year.

But why did the Times Company threaten The Globe with a shutdown? It’s something we’ve seen a bit of recently: The Newhouses did it with The Star-Ledger in Newark; the Hearst corporation with the San Francisco Chronicle.

For a company as big as this, $20 million doesn’t seem like a make-or-break sort of cut, especially when the paper is supposedly losing so much more.

And, as Mr. Keller said, Boston is an elite market. The New England Media Group, with The Globe representing the biggest breadwinner, brought in $523 million in revenue last year-not exactly chump change. Can an organization with $523 million in revenue really be on its last limbs over $20 million?

“At this point, it’s primarily a negotiating strategy,” said John Morton, the newspaper analyst. “The likelihood that The Times would shut down The Globe is pretty remote, but it does suggest that no company is required to lose $50 million a year.”

Video at Politico:

Chicago Sun-Times:

A congressional ethics board has launched a preliminary inquiry into U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), related to President Obama’s vacant Senate seat and the corruption investigation of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

The Office of Congressional Ethics, formed just last year, voted in late March to conduct a “preliminary review” of actions surrounding Jackson’s bid to be appointed to the Senate seat, according to documents released to parties involved in the probe. The revelation means Jackson is the second member of the Illinois delegation undergoing an ethical review related to the Blagojevich scandal. The U.S. Senate ethics committee is investigating U.S. Sen. Roland Burris.

Oh man.

The White House denies there was a bow.

Washington Wire:

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously Friday that the state’s 11-year-old law limiting marriages to a man and a woman runs counter to the state constitution, making Iowa the third state in the nation-and first in the Midwest-to legalize gay marriage.

The Hawkeye state joins Massachusetts and Connecticut in recognizing same-sex marriage. The court’s 7-0 decision stated that the “The primary constitutional principle at the heart of this case is the doctrine of equal protection” and that “equal protection can only be defined by the standards of each generation.”

Although there have already been numerous requests for marriage permits from eager same-sex couples, the court’s ruling will not be finalized for 21 days, leaving time for opponents to file a request for a rehearing.

Iowa’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Charles Grassley, who has spoken out in the past against gay marriage, would not comment on the court ruling because “it’s a state issue,” an aide said.

The Scorecard:

Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie, one of Sen. Chris Dodd’s leading critics in the Connecticut press, has the scoop on the first primary challenger to the embattled senator:

Greenwich, Connecticut Democrat Roger Pearson told me he has formed a committee to explore a run for his party’s 2010 nomination. The former First Selectman of the Republican bastion says that like many others he “is very disaffected” with Dodd, who has “really disappointed a lot of people.”

“I look at the vision this guy is going to try to tell us he has,” Pearson, 63, said late Thursday afternoon. “Where was he when Phil Gramm was talking about credit default stops and subprime mortgages?”

“I don’t believe in career politics or career politicians,” taking swipe at five term incumbent Dodd, who has fallen 16 points behind Republican former congressman Rob Simmons, according to a Quinnipiac Poll released yesterday.

RedstateMc:

Liberals had a lot of fun last year picking on John McCain for having a short temper. It’s poetic justice that he seems to hold a grudge:

John McCain sounds angry and frustrated that, despite the risks he took in pushing immigration reform, Hispanic voters flocked to Democrat Barack Obama in last year’s presidential contest. McCain’s raw emotions burst forth recently as he heatedly told Hispanic business leaders that they should now look to Obama, not him, to take the lead on immigration…

“He was angry,” one source said. “He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn’t even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset.”

McCain’s message was obvious, the source continued: Aftertwo bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama’s pace on the issue. “He threw out [the words] ‘You people - you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,’ ” the source said. “It was almost as if [he was saying] ‘You’re cut off!’ We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that.”

The Star:

PLEASANT HILL, Mo. (AP) - Gov. Jay Nixon says work will begin this month on linking the Kansas City area to the Katy Trail that stretches across the state.

Nixon was in Pleasant Hill today at what is planned to be the western-most trail head of the trail. The 46-miles segment will link the area to Windsor, where the trail now passes.

Rasmussen:

Democrats in the Senate are talking of cutting back President Obama’s pledge of tax cuts for most Americans in the face of record deficits. But 63% of U.S. voters now say tax cuts would help the economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

That’s up from 56% in February and marks the highest level found in years of tracking this question. Scott Rasmussen has posed this polling question regularly since the mid-nineties and Rasmussen Reports now tracks it on a monthly basis.

Only 13% say tax cuts would hurt the economy, down from 16% a month ago.

Most voters (51%) believe increasing taxes would hurt the economy, the highest reading on this question since early January. Just under a quarter (23%) of voters say tax increases would help the country’s economic situation.

Ben Cunningham on a Tennessee mayor:

Link
The mayor of East Ridge fights for his political life as his future is in the hands of a Hamilton County Criminal Court judge.

That’s because a group of citizens has filed an ouster suit using a rarely called upon law to remove Mike Steele from his elected office. After three days of testimony attorneys for Mayor Steele and the group of citizens who want him removed gave their final arguments.

“He did this knowingly, he did it willfully and obviously did it for ulterior purposes,” attorney Charlie Wright argued before Judge Don Poole Thursday.

Wright made his final case on behalf of a group of East Ridge citizens who say they’ve had enough of Mayor Steele.

LA Times:

Reporting from New Orleans — This city is a rarity in 2009: a place full of hard hats and big building projects and subcontractors roaring around in pickup trucks. A city where home prices have dipped only slightly, and where the unemployment rate is 5.3% — compared with 8.1% nationwide. (more…)

NRO:

Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, former Duke geophysics professor Stuart Rojstaczer discusses his findings on grade inflation.

Does it really matter? Yes, says Rojstaczer: “When students walk into a classroom knowing that they can go through the motions and get a B+ or better, that’s what they tend to do, give minimal effort.”

The amount of studying students do on average has been dropping steadily, and many fill up the idle time with drinking and fun. “If we continue along this path,” Rojstaczer writes, “we’ll end up with a generation of poorly educated college graduates who have used their four years principally to develop an addition to alcohol.”

Politico:

He decried “an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious.” And he suggested that America had done its part to break with the past - not least of all by electing him - and now it was time for Europe to do the same.

“America is changing but it cannot be America alone that changes,” he said.

He ticked off exactly what steps the U.S. was taking - closing Guantanamo Bay prison, ending torture, trying to confront climate change - but it wasn’t until he took questions that he reminded Europe of the burden they must share with the United States.

“Al Qaeda is still a threat,” Obama reminded the audience. “We cannot pretend somehow that because Barack Hussein Obama got elected as president, suddenly everything is going to be OK.”

Politico:

Greg Sargent reports that President Obama’s pick as the State Department’s legal adviser, Harold Koh, has picked up an unlikely defender — conservative legal lion Ted Olson. (more…)

The Scorecard:

Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio is considering running for the Senate whether or not Gov. Charlie Crist ultimately decides to run, according to a source familiar with his thinking.

Rubio, who previously said he would run for governor if Crist jumped in the Senate race, has shifted his thinking since the governor made some decisions that have been met with anger from the party’s conservative base.

Despite his strong approval ratings across the state, Crist’s standing among Republicans has taken a hit since he appeared with President Obama to support the stimulus legislation in February.

“An ideological primary without a lot of money would be a lot easier than a competitive gubernatorial race,” said the source, comparing Crist to moderate GOP Sen. Arlen Specter. “It could become a national primary for the heart and soul of the Republican party.”

Indeed, a just-released Mason-Dixon poll suggests that, despite Crist’s popularity, he is facing some trouble from his GOP base. The poll showed only 23 percent of Republicans would “definitely” vote for Crist if he ran for the Senate (compare that to the 66 percent of Republicans who would “definitely” support AG Bill McCollum for governor.)

Heritage:

During his presidential campaign, President Barack Obama promised the American people a “net spending cut.”1 Instead, he signed a “stimulus” bill that spends $800 billion, and he has proposed a budget that would:

• Increase spending by $1 trillion over the next decade;
• Include an additional $250 billion placeholder for another financial bailout;
• Likely lead to a 12 percent increase in discretion­ary spending;
• Permanently expand the federal government by nearly 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over pre-recession levels;
• Raise taxes on all Americans by $1.4 trillion over the next decade;
• Raise taxes for 3.2 million taxpayers by an average of $300,000 over the next decade;
• Call for a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) law despite offering a budget that would violate it by $3.4 trillion;
• Assume a rosy economic scenario that few econo­mists anticipate;
• Leave permanent deficits averaging $600 billion even after the economy recovers; and
• Double the publicly held national debt to over $15 trillion ($12.5 trillion after inflation).2

Reuters:

ROME, April 6 (Reuters) - An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L’Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population. The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome. Vans with loudspeakers had driven around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor’s anger. Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for “spreading alarm” and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.

HT Drudge

JCCC:

JCCC ODEI PRESENTS “VISIONS OF THE WORLD: ETHIOPIAN CONNECTION DAY” ON APRIL 11

The JCCC Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion presents “Visions of the World: Ethiopian Connection Day” from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 11. The event is open to the JCCC community and friends.

Activities include workshops and a cultural night.

The day begins with registration and a continental breakfast in the Atrium of the Regnier Center. Workshops run from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Topics are:

• Education: applying to college and earning a certificate
• Health: understanding health care and medical screenings
• Employment: building resumes and learning interview skills

A children’s workshop runs concurrently with the education, health and employment events.

A panel discussion is scheduled for 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Hudson Auditorium.

The day ends with a cultural night in the Capitol Federal Room of the Regnier Center featuring an Ethiopian dinner, art exhibit, poetry and a fashion show.   Guest speakers for the evening are Jane and Chris Kurtz from Ethiopian Reads Organization.

Tickets for the dinner and cultural event are $10 and are available at the Student Information Desk, 106 SC. For more information, contact Jason Rozelle at ext. 4327.

JCCC:

SHOE DRIVE RUNS THROUGH APRIL 11

The Collegiate Entrepreneur’s Organization (CEO) and Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) are hosting a Shoe Drive until April 11.

Shoes can be placed in bins found in the Cafeteria, across from the Student Information Center and on the first floor of the Regnier Center. These shoes will be recycled and reused through an organization called Soles 4 Soles, www.recycle-shoes-now.com. All types of shoes are accepted except heels.

If you have questions, contact Barbara Millard at bmillard1@jccc.edu.