Update: Republican Stacey Campfield said he regrets that “some people miss the point of his post.”

Campfield wrote on his blog Camp4u that bragging about signups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of Jews on "train rides" in the 1940s.

Campfield has a history of controversial statements.

I regret that some people miss the point of my post. It was not to offend. It was to warn. To draw attention to Obamacare and the slippery slope that I see occurring in the lives of myself, my constituents, and the rest of the country with the continued taking of freedom by the federal government.

In no way was my post meant to diminish or detract from the pain, suffering and loss of human life that occurred during this dark time in human history. Instead the post was meant to draw attention to the loss of freedom that we are currently experiencing. I stand by my steadfast opposition to Obamacare.

My position and record on the sacredness of human life and protecting that life speaks for itself. 300 million Americans are at risk from government bureaucrats deciding who should be given life saving medications and who should be denied. Every citizen now faces the possibility of their tax dollars going to pay for a government funded abortion. At no point in our history have we ever faced a federal government and administration with a lower regard for human life, and that is something that I cannot and will not allow to go unchallenged.

I will continue to stand up against the government takeover of the nations healthcare. I will continue to support freedom and life.

Copy + paste.

Corry Westbrook is a Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida's 8th Congressional district. She is currently in a primary race to take on incumbent Republican Rep. Bill Posey.

Corry Westbrook for Congress Facebook / Via fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net

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Don’t wanna be an American idiot.

1. E-mail.
2. IBM ThinkPads.
3. Blackberries.
4. Saying "Crackberry."

PAUL J.RICHARDS / Getty Images

5. The billions of dollars that vanished in Paul Bremer's Iraq.
6. Paul Bremer being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Win McNamee / Getty Images

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But doing nothing is worse, they say.

A protester takes part in a demonstration calling for immigration reform at a rally in Chicago, Illinois, March 27, 2014.

Jim Young / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers have pushed the Obama administration to take significant action on deportations of undocumented immigrants as the prospects for major legislative action on immigration look less and less likely.

But the lawmakers haven't been as vocal as many advocates want. One of the reasons for the caution: Some lawmakers have concerns about the long-term consequences of executive decisions on deportations — specifically that deferring deportations for undocumented immigrants would leave them in a dangerous legal limbo.

"One has to fully appreciate the urgency in this crisis that we're facing over deportation policy and I'm one that believes in immediate relief," said Rep. Raúl Grijalva. "It's short-term, and I know that and I worry about the consequences of that. But I see no other avenue than deportations continue and we continue waiting to see if Godot is going to have a vote."

Advocates have put major pressure on the Obama administration on deportations this year, with some — but not all — arguing deportation relief should take precedence over citizenship questions. To his reported frustration, President Obama has been repeatedly attacked on the issue by activists, including dubbing him the "deporter-in-chief."

Obama directed the secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, to review current law and suggest ways to handle deportations "more humanely" after the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was poised to publicly call on the president to do something about deportations.

But some lawmakers privately wonder if that review will have unintended consequences. For instance, if a Republican president is elected in 2016, could any policy changes be undone?

The alternative — to leave things as they are and wait around for something to happen — is far worse, these lawmakers say. Rep. Joaquin Castro pointed to the president's deferred action for DREAMers, the two-year-old policy for children who were brought to the United States at a young age, as an example of an executive order that's had a high impact.

"The executive actions would only be temporary, stop-gap measures to relieve the problem. Ideally you wouldn't have those continue for years and years, the congress should pass something so these changes are written into law," Castro said. "We all see this as a short-term solution. There's a concern that these folks would be in a kind of limbo if we don't find a long-term solution. [The policy] has been going on two years, and those concerns have not come to pass. But if you continue on for a long period of time, you risk that."

It's unclear at this point what exactly the Department of Homeland Security will do to make their deportation policy "more humane." Some potential policy changes under consideration have been reported, however, including bond hearings for detainees and adjusting priorities for who should be deported, both of which would effectively slow deportations.

If the administration does take further action on the deportation issue, Republican pushback will be swift. Conservatives on Capitol Hill charge the Obama administration is just an example of the president trying to bring "amnesty" to undocumented immigrants through an executive order — and point to it as a reason they are wary of doing anything at all on immigration.

"If he wants to violate the constitution, that's up to him. I don't respond to threats from the president," said Idaho Republican Raúl Labrador. "If he wants to comes to Congress and work with us, call people who are working on immigration reform, that would go a long way. He's appealing to advocates and people who committed crimes and violated the law. He doesn't care about the rule of law, and some of us do."

Many advocates see no real downside to the administration moving forward.

"Our critics sometimes say there's nothing more permanent than a temporary granted status, and in fact that's largely true," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice. "It's not impossible to undo but it's very hard."

United We Dream policy director Lorella Praeli said that her group, like others, was focused explicitly on families and immigrants with deep community ties. Like the DACA action, they are betting that any Republican running for national office won't challenge whatever the president does and doing so would be harmful politically.

"We're grounded in the fact that we'll continue to fight for a permanent solution and to protect what we get administratively," she said. "I think it would be political suicide to for a Republican president or candidate to say they would do away with deferred action for DREAMERS. I think it would be the same in the case of their parents, to go out and separate families."

"I don't think anyone could get elected president promising to repeal deferred action for DREAMERS or their parents," she added.

Sharry pointed to the disadvantage Republican candidate Mitt Romney had in 2012 with Latino voters, especially after he promised to stop deferred action for DREAMers.

"He wasn't going to take it away from the people who got it but he was going to stop going forward with it, the civil disobedience that would have greeted his election, the wave of opposition would have been intense. Magnify that by millions if a candidate threatened to deport that entire group," Sharry said.

Rep. Xavier Becerra, the chairman of the Democratic caucus and Hispanic caucus member, argued if the president acts, he'll do so in a way that will make it difficult for Republicans to disagree with, now or in the future.

"My sense is that we're not going to go backwards. Whatever the president is going to do is simply going to reflect the overwhelming view of most Americans watching this," Becerra said. "Even if the president does something on immigration through his executive powers, it likely would fit in what the Republicans themselves proposed on immigration reform."

"I don't think the president will go outside of what the law permits, nor will he go outside on what I think there's unanimous agreement on. I don't think anything he would do through executive action would be overturned by a future president because it's going to make sense what he did," he added.

Be more like those other Republicans, basically.

Ints Kalnins / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The message from President Obama and Vice President Biden on Cinco De Mayo: House GOP caucus, act more like those other Republicans willing to act on major legislative immigration action.

Biden kicked things off early Monday at a breakfast event hosted at his official residence at the Naval Observatory, directly calling on House Speaker John Boehner to allow a vote on immigration he's hinted his caucus is too nervous to cast.

"It's time for John—he's a good man, John Boehner—to stand up and other Republicans to stand up. Not for us to stand up. We've already stood up. We've been right there. We stood up," Biden said. "It's time for him to stand up, stand up at not let the minority—I think it's a minority—of the Republican Party in the House keep us from moving in a way that will change the circumstances for millions and millions of lives."

Biden referred to previous comments on immigration that ignited a firestorm in some corners of the conservative internet. Speaking to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber Of Commerce, Biden said the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. "are already American citizens to me."

Biden said that was an idea Republicans could agree with, though the Republican he cited was far removed from the current political landscape.

"And I know I was criticized for saying a couple of months ago in Florida that these 11 million folks in the shadows are already Americans and I got pretty roundly criticized for that. But they are Americans. They may not be citizens, but they are Americans," Biden said. "In the definition of Teddy Roosevelt, he said Americanism is not a question of birthplace or creed or line of descent, it's a question of principles, idealism, and character. And I would argue that those 11 million folks who have been here breaking their neck, working hard, they are Americans."

At a White House Cinco de Mayo event in the evening, Obama also cited Republican supporters of new immigration policies while urging the House GOP to act.

"So far the Republicans in the House have refused to allow meaningful immigration reform to move forward at all. We know there are Republicans in the House who want to do the right thing," Obama told a room full of prominent Latinos and political organizers. "I'm going to work with everybody who's serious about strengthening our borders, modernizing our legal system, keeping more families together, and getting this done."

Obama suggested that action on immigration needed to come soon before Washington plunges headlong into electoral politics.

"I need all of you to go out there and mobilize particularly over the next two months. Tell them to get on board," he said. "Get on board with business leaders and faith leaders, law enforcement, Republicans and Democrats across the country. Say yes to fixing our broken immigration system."

President Obama’s science adviser: “Climate change is not a distant threat. It is affecting the American people already.”

WASHINGTON — The White House's top scientist says the debate about climate change is no longer a conversation about America's future, but about how the country will react to dramatic changes to the environment that are already happening.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration released its third National Climate Assessment, a cross-agency government report detailing climate change and its effects on the American populace. President Obama's science adviser, John Holdren, said that the report found real impacts on Americans from climate change, from disruptions to the water supply to more severe allergy attacks.

"The contents confirm climate change is not a distant threat. It is affecting the American people already," Holdren said in a White House video about the assessment shared first with BuzzFeed.

"On the whole, summers are longer and hotter, with longer periods of extended heat. Wildfires start earlier in the spring and continue later into the fall. Rain comes down in heavier downpours," Holdren said. "People are experiencing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies. And climate disruptions to water and agriculture have been increasing."

Behind the changes to the climate is human activity, Holdren said.

"These phenomena are consistent with the ongoing changes in global climate, which we know with very high confidence are being caused mainly by the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gasses released by human activities," he said.

The video is part of an extended push by the White House this week to put climate change on the American agenda despite reticence from Republicans on Capitol Hill. In addition to the report — which launched on a slick government website called GlobalChange.gov — top Obama adviser John Podesta is hosting an event at the White House focusing on how climate change is impacting specific regions of the United States.

On Thursday, the Weather Channel will host a Google Hangout at the White House featuring top administration officials discussing climate change. Obama will sit for interviews with local meteorologists from around the country Tuesday afternoon in the Rose Garden.

The administration promises real action on climate change despite the essential impossibility of climate legislation moving through the divided Congress.

“No person shall show the person’s own marked or punched ballot to another person to reveal how it was marked or punched.”

[(10)] (9) No person shall show the person's own marked or punched ballot to another person to reveal how it was marked or punched.

Via oregonlegislature.gov

Via citmedia.org

White House press Secretary Jay Carney called the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls “an outrage and a terrible tragedy,” but said Nigeria must take the lead in the rescue effort.

s3-ec.buzzfed.com

"The State Department has been in regular touch with the Nigerian government about what we might do to help support its efforts to find and free these young women," Carney said.

"When it comes to what specifically we are doing, our counterterrorism assistance in Nigeria focuses on information-sharing, on improving Nigeria's forensics and investigative capacity," he said. "It also stresses the importance of protecting civilians and assuring that human rights are protected and respected. We are working with the Nigerian government to strengthen its criminal justice system and increase confidence in the government by supporting its efforts to hold those responsible for violence accountable."

AP Photo

Activists have taken to the internet to raise awareness about the kidnappings.

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The media is talking about Monica Lewinsky today thanks to her piece in Vanity Fair . But here’s a highly scientific look at how they would have reported the original story in 1998.

Gawker:

Vice:

Upworthy:

Vox:

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On the day of the senate primary, some in the GOP are scratching their heads at the idea that Thom Tillis isn’t sufficiently conservative.

North Carolina Republican candidate Thom Tillis.

Davis Turner / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — The Senate Republican primary in North Carolina tonight has been described as a test of the "Tea Party vs. Establishment" fight for the heart of the GOP.

But in North Carolina, state officials and long-time political strategists are pushing back against the idea that front-runner and state House Speaker Thom Tillis is really an "establishment" candidate and not sufficiently conservative enough.

"I think it's been a very convenient thing for journalists to write about," said North Carolina's Republican Sen. Richard Burr. "But the fact is Thom Tillis spans all different divisions within the Republican Party. From the polling I've seen he leads Tea Party voters, he leads conservative voters, and if anything this may be a narrative generated by others in the race. He is a practical legislator and maybe that's the difference."

Tillis, who has generally led in polling, has gotten enormous support from Karl Rove's group American Crossroads, the Chamber of Commerce, and Mitt Romney. The Tuesday primary will, however, lead to a July run-off election, if he fails to get to the magic 40% of the vote.

The notion that Tillis is just a part of the get-along establishment has baffled some in the state. When Tillis became speaker of the House, he passed sweeping conservative reforms to education, and blocked medication expansion in the state. He passed anti-abortion legislation and voting reforms that have enraged Democrats in the state, spurring large weekly protests known as "Moral Mondays."

"If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. He walks like a conservative, he's talked like a conservative, he is a conservative," said Dee Stewart, a longtime North Carolina Republican consultant. "No amount of hooting and hollering to the contrary can change the fact that he has the most consistently conservative voting record as anyone who has run for the Senate in a long time."

"They say he's part of the establishment, but what does that mean? It doesn't mean anything," he added, noting that Tillis "ran a conservative revolution in North Carolina."

The race pits him against Mark Harris, who has been endorsed by Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Greg Brannon, an obstetrician who has the backing of Sen. Rand Paul and several outside conservative groups. While Tea Party groups like FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Patriots have endorsed Brannon, state Republicans point to Tillis' work flipping the state legislature to Republican after more than a century of Democratic control.

Brannon, who has never run for elected office, has positioned himself as the true conservative in the race and Paul travelled to North Carolina on Monday to rally for Brannon calling him "a champion" and "a dragon slayer." Paul's basic argument for Brannon is that he's not a politician and someone who could come to Washington to shake things up.

"We've got enough of Democrat-lite up there. We've got enough people who don't stand for anything or won't change the system," Paul said. "The status quo is strong in Washington, Leviathan has grown too large. We cannot settle for any old politician anymore."

Brannon could and is still causing headaches for Republicans who see Tillis as their best shot at beating Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in November. A recent poll shows Tillis right at the 40 percent threshold he'd need to avoid a costly run-off with Brannon, who's gaining momentum and came in at 28 percent. And it's unclear yet how much Paul's last minute pitch to voters will be able to move the needle. A spokesperson for Brannon did not return a request for comment.

In a moment of bipartisan agreement, Democrats agree that Tillis is deeply conservative. Of course, their argument is that he's far too conservative to win. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee led a press release today with the headline "TILLIS HAS EMBRACED FRINGE AGENDA THAT WILL HURT HIM IN FALL" and linked to a lengthy Hagan campaign memo that argues Tillis will be "forced to defend his divisive and offensive remarks, his abysmal, anti-middle class record in Raleigh, his newest slew of fringe positions, and his heavy load of ethical baggage."

But as far as Republicans go, many say even if the narrative that Tillis isn't really a conservative is around right now, it can't be sustained.

"Tillis has been in touch with the grassroots for the last several years when he campaigned very hard for state house candidates in 2010 and helped a lot of conservative candidates get elected and ultimately won a super majority in the legislature that year," said Russell Peck, another GOP strategist in North Carolina. "He was a hard campaigner for a lot of these guys and worked with the grassroots and the party. That hard work he did during that time and kept in touch with after that time has really paid off."

"I just don't think that the momentum is there to say he's not a true conservative. It's hard for another candidate to try to say otherwise."

Sign a petition and…contribute?

Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, sent this email Tuesday:

At least 40 veterans awaiting appointments with the Phoenix Veterans Affairs health care system died, CNN reported. The veterans were placed on secret wait list that was part of a plan by Phoenix Veterans Affairs officials to hide that between 1,400 and 1,600 veterans had to wait months to see a doctor.

CNN reported there were two lists of veterans waiting to see doctors. There was a list shared with Veteran Affairs officials in Washington, D.C., showing veterans had timely appointments and a list that was hidden with the lengthy wait times.

The links in the email go to a petition page, demanding an investigation of the deaths.

Via salsa.mydccc.org

But the bottom of the page also has a contribute button following her signature:

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Many on the right are jumping at the chance to revisit Bill Clinton’s sex scandal ahead of 2016 — but others worry about repeating the GOP’s mistakes of the ’90s. “If they throw out a bad pitch and you swing at it, then you’re an idiot,” says Norquist.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File

Getty

Mike Theiler / Reuters

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Tillis secured the nomination with more than 45% of the vote.

Republican senatorial candidate Thom Tillis.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis has secured the Republican nomination for Senate and will face off against Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in November.

The Associated Press called it for Tillis, who received 46% of the vote with 43% of precincts reporting. Tillis needed to get 40% of the vote to avoid a costly runoff in July.

The race had been described as a test of the strength of the GOP establishment versus the tea party faction, as Tillis faced obstetrician Greg Brannon, who had the backing of FreedomWorks, the Tea Party Patriots, Sen. Rand Paul, and Sen. Mike Lee. But state Republicans had recently pushed back on the narrative that Tillis was not conservative enough, and in fact, one of the most conservative candidates the state had ever seen.

Paul had made a last-minute swing into the state on Monday to rally support for Brannon, while Tillis had the backing of American Crossroads, the Chamber of Commerce, and Mitt Romney.

Under Tillis the state legislature pushed a number of GOP priorities through the state house including anti-abortion laws, a voter ID law, and educational reforms. Democrats are poised, and have been arguing for months, that Tillis is far too conservative to represent the state.

The race is seen as one of the most competitive in the country.

Only 36% of Americans believe the justices usually decide cases based only on the law, according to a new poll being released Wednesday.

Supreme Court justices attend the State of the Union speech on Jan. 28.

Larry Downing / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Only about a third of Americans believe the Supreme Court decides cases based on the law alone, according to new polling data about the court.

According to the new poll, Americans believe the Supreme Court justices are political, letting their personal views sway their decisions — an opinion held across party lines. And more than three-quarters of Americans oppose the Citizens United ruling four years after the Supreme Court handed down the landmark campaign finance decision.

By large margins, Americans say they would also like to see more openness and accountability from the Supreme Court — on topics from access to courtroom proceedings to financial disclosures and ethics rules — as well as an end to lifetime terms.

The polling, done by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for Democracy Corps and provided in advance to BuzzFeed, comes as the justices are considering the final cases of the term, all of which are expected to be decided by the end of next month, and tracks with other polling from Pew and Gallup showing the court's favorability at historic lows.

In mid-April, the Coalition for Court Transparency asked the court "to consider making the live audio feed of oral arguments publicly accessible" in letters sent to the justices — a move that the new polling shows is supported by 67% of Americans. An even greater portion of respondents, 71%, said television cameras should be allowed to record and broadcast the proceedings live.

Majorities of Republican, Democratic, and Independent respondents all told the pollsters that "the current U.S. Supreme Court justices often let their own personal or political views influence their decisions" — 54% of Democrats, 62% of Republicans, and 63% of Independents, for a total result of 60% of respondents agreeing with the statement. Only 36% of respondents agree that "the current U.S. Supreme Court justices usually decide their cases based on legal analysis without regard to their own personal or political views."

Specifically regarding the Supreme Court's Citizens United campaign finance decision from 2010, respondents were told:

In response, 80% of Americans opposed the decision and 18% supported it. Although Republicans (72%) were less opposed to the decision than Democrats (82%), it was Independents (84%) most opposed to the decision.

Of the recent decision in McCutcheon, pollsters told people that "the Supreme Court recently overturned a law that had been on the books for the last 40 years that limited the total amount of money any individual may donate to all federal political campaigns and political parties in a single election cycle." A slight majority of respondents, at 51%, believed the decision would lead to more corruption, though many, at 38%, believed it would make no difference. Only 8% believe the decision will lead to less corruption.

As with Citizens United, Independents are most opposed to the McCutcheon decision, with 56% believing it will lead to more corruption and only 5% believing it will lead to less corruption. Democrats are 52%–11% on that count, while Republicans are 47%–12%.

A majority of Americans, per the polling, also strongly support ending the lifetime tenure of justices. In questions split between the respondents, half were asked whether lifetime tenure should be changed to a fixed 18-year term while the other half were just asked if lifetime tenure should be ended and replaced with a fixed term. The total support for ending lifetime tenure, depending on the wording of the question, is at least 70%, with "strong" support being at least 53%.

A change supported by 85% of respondents would be for the justices to have to follow the U.S. Judicial Code of Conduct, "the ethical code that binds other federal judges — from which [the justices] are currently exempt." At the same time, 80% of Americans believe justices should need to disclose "any outside activities paid for by others … in their annual financial disclosure reports."

The polling is based on a survey of 1,004 Americans over the age of 18, conducted from April 16–24. It has a margin of error of 3.1% at the 95% confidence level.

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A long-awaited memo on deportations isn’t supported by a key member of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s staff.

(Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press / MCT)

A key Senate Democrat and the White House are at odds over how the Obama administration should release new policies on deportations.

The Department of Homeland Security is expected to release a memo in the next month outlining new policies aimed at slowing deportations of undocumented immigrants.

But a critical member of New York Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer's staff has raised concerns over whether the memo should be released at all — arguing it could harm the prospects for legislation on immigration this year.

At an April meeting two weeks ago between administration officials and congressional staff, Leon Fresco engaged in what was described as an "unexpected" disagreement with Cecilia Muñoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

Fresco has been the point man for many of the immigration policy negotiations on Capitol Hill in the last several years.

At the meeting, Fresco said that Republican opposition to policy changes, whether they are small — as in the expected memo — or big ones, will be unified and fierce. According to the sources, Fresco said he believes that if the administration releases the memo ahead of legislative action, House Republicans will then be able to charge that the president is lawless and imperial, and would subsequently kill any legislation on immigration.

One of the sources familiar with the meeting said Fresco has voiced these concerns before.

Muñoz countered that the White House has to do something after the president announced the administration-wide review of deportation policies and procedures earlier this year. She also argued that if Schumer believes that the administration's release would harm negotiations, he should announce it publicly, according to the sources.

Muñoz also apparently referenced the DREAMers and advocates who protested and engaged in hunger strikes in front of the White House throughout the month of April.

"Cecilia said, 'You guys need to make up your mind, on one hand we have people on the lawn saying do stuff now, so if you guys don't want this you have to publicly go out there and say this,'" a source familiar with the meeting said.

Schumer's office declined to comment for the story.

Some believe that because Republicans will be unified in their opposition and Democrats will be divided into those who are excited and those who are faint in their praise, a rumored two-part strategy by the administration to address deportations — small reforms now and something larger if a legislative fix isn't introduced by House Republicans — will have less of a chance of happening.

Frank Sharry, the executive director of America's Voice, confirmed that Muñoz has been having meetings with various stakeholders ahead of the memo being released, though he said he is not one of them. The people she is meeting with were described as various advocates and congressional staff members.

When Congress might begin moving legislation on immigration isn't yet clear. The president has previously identified June and Rep. Luis Gutierriez has marked early July as a potential deadline. Sharry said Schumer is worried about a memo undercutting the ability for a legislative solution.

"There is some concern among some senators, including Schumer, that if it's now May and the president said let's wait till mid-June, why would they announce something a couple weeks before their own deadline?" he said.

A source familiar with the meeting between Schumer's staff and Muñoz said this was just reiterating what the veteran senator has said publicly — that the House should have a couple more months to move on a bill before any administrative relief is provided. If nothing has happened by August, then the president would be free to do something bigger on deportations, like Schumer's suggestion that he move to protect those who would be eligible for citizenship under the bipartisan Senate bill.

Sharry said he knows how this is going to play out and it's not going to be good for the administration.

"It seems somewhat predictable that the administration will announce reforms that are too small to satisfy advocates and too big to not piss off Republicans," he said.

"It just seems likely that if they announce something in the next week or two, advocates will say, 'It's not good enough' and Republicans will say, 'We were going to do legislation but now we can't.' If you're gonna go big, go big. If you're going to challenge Congress to pass legislation then don't give them an easy excuse not to."

One of the sources familiar with the meeting said Schumer is very nervous that any small enforcement announcement will derail whatever small chance there is of immigration reform.

But many activists have said the changes being considered in the memo are not merely small enforcement changes.

The rumored changes include bond hearings so undocumented immigrants can fight their cases outside of detention, and redefining removal priorities, so someone who reentered the country but does not have a serious criminal record would not be targeted, the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press have reported.

The administration is also reportedly looking at shortening the time an immigrant is considered new, and therefore a removal priority. A recent immigrant would go from someone who entered in the last three years, to someone who entered in the last two weeks. Reuters reported the memo would also seek to protect immigrants serving in the U.S. military from deportation.

But activists say the memo is coming and it's because of the pressure that has already been put on the president.

"It's inevitable," said Lorella Praeli, director of advocacy and policy at United We Dream. "There's no way the White House does not respond to grassroots pressure that has just started and will continue to mount."

For his part Fresco, the one who drafted passages of the original, 844-page bill that the Senate passed, is used to being in the middle of tough issues.

"He was the one that the Republicans called when they were mad about how things were going," Chandler Morse, the immigration staff negotiator for Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona told McClatchey in a profile of Fresco last year. "And he was the one Democrats called when they were mad about how things were going. And in a two-party system, someone is always angry."

Praeli said her organization's position is that the president should act now and that Republicans will feel pressure too.

"The deadline for Republicans is not September, if we're going to look at any deadline we should look at Mr. Gutierrez's deadline of July 4," she said. "If Republicans do not put forward a bill and vote on it, then it shows they have no serious commitment in seeing this through."

The New York State Senate voted 52-8 Tuesday to make yogurt the official state snack. The bill moves on to the State Assembly for approval.

The New York State Senate debated and passed a bill to make yogurt the official state snack. Here's the text of the bill:

New York State Senate

The campaign to make yogurt the state snack was launched by fourth grade students from Byron-Bergen Elementary School. Here's one of their videos:

youtube.com

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Death penalty developments over the past decade show “the urgent need for reform and issuance of new and revised recommendations,” a new report states.

constitutionproject.org

WASHINGTON — Dozens of recommendations on improving the implementation of the death penalty — from trial procedures to the use of executive clemency to the method of execution — have come out of a bipartisan "death penalty committee" established by the Constitution Project.

A 217-page report issued Wednesday by the committee includes 37 "black letter recommendations," as well as companion analysis in support of those recommendations prepared by the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

One key recommendation is that "[j]urisdictions should act with transparency in the development and administration of lethal injection protocols," an issue raised by defense counsel in several states — including Oklahoma, where last week's botched execution has led to a delay in a pending execution in the state while a review of procedures is completed.

According to the report, "Texas, California and Alabama remain, by far, the most active states in terms of sentencing individuals to death, and all three require significant death penalty reforms." The report also singles out Texas and Alabama, along with Pennsylvania, for "often compensat[ing] capital defense counsel at such low levels as to make effective representation nearly impossible."

Developments since the committee's last report, in 2005, show "the urgent need for reform and issuance of new and revised recommendations," the report states.

In describing the committee behind the recommendations, the report notes, "The Committee's members include both supporters and opponents of the death penalty. They are Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals. They reflect the full range of criminal justice stakeholders, including those with experience as judges, prosecutors, defenders, law enforcement officers, policymakers, victim advocates and scholars."

- Jurisdictions should rely on the most current scientific knowledge to develop protocols that minimize the risk of pain or suffering, which currently demands the adoption of a one-drug protocol.

- Jurisdictions should act with transparency in the development and administration of lethal injection protocols.

- Jurisdictions should use only drugs obtained in compliance with all laws and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in humans and should take appropriate measures to ensure the quality of the drugs.

- Jurisdictions should ensure that qualified medical personnel are present at executions and responsible for all medically-related elements of executions.

Read the 39 "Black Letter Recommendations" of the report:

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Welcome to Earth.

A CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday showed 80% of Americans think no one survived Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

In one portion of their write up of the poll CNN states Americans think aliens might have been involved in the disappearance: "...while 9% believe that space aliens or beings from another dimension were involved."

And here's how the question appeared in the poll in which 9% of Americans thought aliens could likely be involved. CNN cites "some people" as suggesting the theory.

Via Twitter: @aedwardslevy

CNN basically:

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Here’s a video supercut of the New York state senate debating whether yogurt should be the official state snack.

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The USDA, working with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, is launching a campaign to address the needs and concerns of LGBT communities in rural areas. “This is part of the American dream and we are making sure that the LGBT community is covered in that American dream,” a USDA senior official says of his office’s work.

Scott Baty for BuzzFeed

The federal government is teaming up with an LGBT organization in coming months to launch an unprecedented outreach to LGBT people outside of the nation's urban centers — even as it works on finalizing a rule to ban anti-transgender discrimination in its programs.

The United States Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, is launching the new campaign targeting LGBT Americans living in rural areas Wednesday.

"You never know what could come out of this," Joe Leonard Jr., assistant secretary for civil rights at the USDA, told BuzzFeed. "In addition to getting out information on our programs, there could be things in the next farm bill that comes out of these listening sessions because heretofore we just didn't know."

The campaign, or Rural Pride, will center around daylong summits hosted by the USDA, NCLR, and local LGBT advocacy partners based in rural communities across the country — the first of which will be held June 6 in Greensboro, N.C., in partnership with the LGBTQ Law Center at North Carolina A&T State University. Advocates and the USDA aim to "elevate" the needs of rural area LGBT people, who face numerous obstacles due to a lack of visibility, and to make them aware of USDA programs, according to Maya Rupert, policy director at NCLR.

USDA programs — such as rural housing loans, community facility grants, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, youth programs, and community partnerships — can "strengthen the daily lives of LGBT rural community members," the USDA's description of the upcoming summit notes.

"In the long run, it's a win-win for the country," Leonard said. "What we're endeavoring to pursue is courting the LGBT community and letting them know about all the different things that USDA does. We're building on the program side, but what I know is that we're going to end up getting better employees, we're going to end up having better farmers, provide better homes to people who heretofore had to go through a bank and didn't know they could go to USDA."

Rural LGBT communities are often victimized based on the combination of their LGBT identities and other factors like socioeconomic status, race, and lack of rights under the law like marriage equality and nondiscrimination protections, according to Rupert. Members of the transgender community — particularly transgender people of color — are particularly vulnerable and experience higher rates of poverty, homelessness, and unemployment than cisgender, or non-transgender, people, she said. On top of that, findings from the 2010 U.S. census show that same-sex couples raising children are more common in the South than anywhere else.

"What we want to do is dismantle some of these myths that the LGBT community doesn't live in rural areas, that they are wealthy, and then also talk about the policies that would impact these peoples' lives," Rupert said. "As we experience an unprecedented number of LGBT equality victories across the country, many people living in rural communities have not seen the full impact of these victories simply because of where they live. We wanted to give people the opportunity to talk to the USDA officials and advocates and say, 'These are the things we need.'"

Additionally, the USDA has worked with NCLR to craft a nondiscrimination rule that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in programs facilitated by the USDA, such as its homeownership loan program, which assists low or moderate income rural people in purchasing or building a home. The rule would also apply to its Community Facility Program when it is approved. USDA officials say they are in the final phases of the plan with the White House. USDA already prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.

"Housing has always been an issue in communities of color and the LGBT community, so this is important," Leonard said. "This rule guarantees that if someone comes there who is transgender, you cannot discriminate against them in regard to that. Our single-family housing is a vertical elevator up. It's our safety net. This is the person who is trying to build equity, this is the person who is trying to move from multifamily housing to their own home."

The timing on the rule, however, is less than clear, Ashlee Davis, the special assistant for civil rights at USDA, told BuzzFeed: "We don't know anything about timeline. We're hopeful, though, that it will happen soon. The first round of comments from the White House Office of Management and Budget were incredibly positive, so we feel very confident."

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced in 2012 it would ban discrimination in its housing programs based on sexual orientation or gender identity. "HUD has the authority over [housing in] urban areas, we cover rural areas," Leonard said. "So, if anything, instead of a blanket on a bed covering 25% of the bed, it covers the entire bed."

The summits, for their part, will mark the first time the USDA has conducted outreach specifically for the LGBT community. Throughout the campaign, USDA and NCLR will take feedback from rural LGBT Americans across the country, which Rupert hopes will translate into new policies and programs or even a working group within the USDA that will specifically oversee LGBT rural issues. "We need somebody who knows about health, lending, housing, transportation, and faith communities to all come together and say this is what we need to do and where we need to go from here," she said.

Both Rupert and Leonard anticipate the needs of LGBT Americans in some rural areas will be different from others, as marriage rights and nondiscrimination protections vary from state to state. Additional summits will be based on feedback during the campaign, as well as input from advocates in rural areas.

"This is part of the American dream and we are making sure that the LGBT community is covered in that American dream and then we are going to very pointedly and directly make sure that other programs are known in the LGBT community," Leonard said. "This is probably the most important thing I'll ever do as assistant secretary for civil rights because it's never been done before."