The Republicans got this one right.

The Republican National Committee site selection committee announced Tuesday it would recommend Cleveland to host the 2016 Republican National convention. The recommendation means Cleveland will very likely be the host of the convention pending negotiations with the city.

"A Cleveland convention offers our party a great steppingstone to the White House in 2016, and I'm encouraged by the committee's recommendation," RNC chairman Reince Priebus said. "The team from Cleveland has gone above and beyond the call of duty and I think they're representative of a city eager to show the country all the fantastic things they have to offer."

Here are 21 reasons why Cleveland was a great choice:

Ohio is a swing state and important one: Every year since 1980 the candidate who has won the endorsement of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has won both Ohio and the presidency.

Cleveland Plain Dealer Frontpage

Lake Erie has tons of beautiful beaches within the Cleveland metro area and within driving distance of the city (Yes, it is safe to swim in them).

Via cleveland.com

Museums at University Circle: The Cleveland Museum of Art (one of the best in the United States), the Natural History Museum, the Institute of Music, and Cleveland Orchestra are located conveniently together on Cleveland's East Side.

Daderot/Wikimedia Commons / Via upload.wikimedia.org

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Heavy lies the crown…

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He’s just really disappointed in them.

Sen. Ted Cruz

Emily Michot/Miami Herald / MCT

WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is pretty angry at the Senate Republican's election arm for getting involved in primaries this cycle but he has no plans to step down from his official role on the committee as a vice chairman.

The latest chapter of the spat between Cruz and the National Republican Senatorial Committee comes after the NRSC aggressively helped Mississippi's incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran beat State Sen. Chris McDaniel in one of the most contentious (and strange) primaries of the cycle. McDaniel has yet to concede in the race and is mounting a legal challenge to contest the results.

Cruz weighed in on the race first on Monday night, speaking with conservative radio host Mark Levin, saying, "The conduct of the Washington, D.C., machine in the Mississippi runoff was incredibly disappointing." On Tuesday, Cruz reiterated that claim to reporters in Washington. He would not specifically say if he meant the NRSC or the Cochran campaign when he referred to the "Washington, D.C., machine," only saying, "I'll let my statement speak for itself."

But Cruz indicated that he would not resign as the NRSC's vice chair because they "share the ultimate goal of electing republicans in November." He had made similar comments in March and now appears to still be committed to staying on once the primary season has passed.

"When I signed on as vice chair at the NRSC, it was based on a explicit commitment from leadership that the NRSC was going to stay out of primaries. Had they not made that commitment I would not have taken on that role," he said. "I participated in the NRSC early on and when the decision was made for them to do otherwise, I stopped participating because I think Washington insiders are notoriously poor at picking winners and losers in primaries and indeed the Mississippi primary is exhibit A for why the NRSC should stay out of primaries."

"I do share the same objective the NRSC shares of winning general election seats in November," he added. "I plan to work very hard and intend to work very, very hard between now and November to make that happen."

McDaniel's main charge is that Cochran's campaign, by encouraging black (and primarily Democratic) voters to support Cochran in the run-off. The campaign has even offered a cash prize to anyone who can show evidence of voter fraud. Cruz had claimed on Levin's show that "what we know at the outset is that Chris McDaniel won a sizable majority of Republicans who voted in the run-off."

"The evidence for that are the numbers in the race," he told reporters on Tuesday. "It was unfortunate to see the D.C. political machine spending substantial money to urge 30,000 to 40,000 Democrats to vote in the Republican primary. They did not do so in an effort to grow the party, to attract their support substantively for Republican ideas."

"Rather the ads that were run made false racial charges, and made no effort to secure those votes in the general election," he continued. "The votes that decided that primary were from Democrats who are all but certain to vote Democratic in the general."

Asked again by a reporter what evidence he had that it was Democrats who pushed Cochran over the edge — as Mississippi does not ask for party identification — Cruz repeated that "the evidence for that are the numbers in the race."

Cruz would not say exactly who he meant by the "D.C. political machine." He did say that he would not "work or facilitate" the efforts of the NRSC as long they are engaged in primaries. Cruz himself had said previously that he would not play in primaries either, and until Monday had stayed publicly neutral in Mississippi.

Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the NRSC, would not comment on Cruz's continued role at the NRSC but said the committee's work in Mississippi was focused on boosting Republican turnout.

"Every dollar spent and man power hour invested by the NRSC in Mississippi focused on Republicans," Dayspring said in an email. "Winning campaigns focus on the ground game, successfully targeting and turning out persuadable voters. Our focus was turning out Republicans who were open to voting for Senator Cochran but didn't vote in the June 3 primary… These investments helped to successfully grow the electorate, and when all was said and done, Senator Cochran picked up well over ten thousand additional Republican votes. In fact, both candidates improved turnout and grew the electorate, Cochran just grew it more."

The worst election in Mississippi history….except for a lot of others.

Republican state senator Chris McDaniel said this weekend that his runoff election loss to incumbent Republican Sen. Thad Cochran is the most unethical and possibly most illegal in Mississippi history.

"Let's make it very clear today," McDaniel said at July 5 "freedom rally." "After what we saw the other night, which is clearly the most unethical election in the history of this state...and might...and might...very well be the most illegal election in the history of this state. We will let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and for alike. The people of this state will do anything to preserve the torch of liberty. We will bear any burden, fight any foe, to make sure that corruption is finally rooted out of the election process in this state."

Here's the video of McDaniel's remarks:

youtube.com

McDaniel has a tough case to make that his election is more unethical and illegal than just about any election in Mississippi that occurred between 1875 and 1964.

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“If our delegates want to do so, we will — it’s in their hands.”

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

WASHINGTON — The National Education Association called for Education Secretary Arne Duncan's resignation at its convention last week, and the next largest teachers' union might soon follow suit.

The American Federation of Teachers' annual convention starts this week, and though a resolution is not in the cards just yet, union president Randi Weingarten wouldn't rule out the possibility they too might call on Duncan to step down.

"Clearly we understand the sentiment of the NEA delegates. That same impulse led me to write a letter to Secretary Duncan criticizing his post-Vergara comments," Weingarten said in a statement emailed to BuzzFeed through a spokesperson. "The AFT convention is a real opportunity for our members to direct policy. Even though — unlike the NEA — local affiliates submit resolutions in advance of the convention and a call for the secretary's resignation is not in any of them, there will be plenty of opportunities for members to amend resolutions, so you never know what will happen on the floor. That's democracy."

The door is still open, but it remains to be seen if Weingarten will herself call for the resolution or address the Duncan issue at the convention.

The AFT has openly criticized President Barack Obama and Duncan on a number of issues, namely the administration's support for charter schools and using test scores to evaluate teachers.

Most recently Weingarten penned a letter to Duncan reprimanding him for supporting a judge's decision in the Vergara case that ruled against certain tenure statutes in the state. In her letter, she said Duncan "added to the polarization" between teachers and their schools.

Weingarten's statement was pre-empted by a Twitter debate she got into with education activist and blogger Diane Ravitch, who mentioned Weingarten in a post calling on the AFT to join the NEA's position.

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The politics of regulating for-profit colleges.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in March.

Larry Downing / Reuters

In an anonymous briefing call yesterday, the Department of Education appeared to distance itself from claims that it had intentionally caused the shutdown of a major for-profit college.

After Corinthian Colleges announced in June that a financial penalty imposed by the Department of Education had placed it in danger of immediate collapse, observers and analysts were quick to credit the government with intentionally moving to shut down one of the sector's most troubled colleges. The government "knew exactly what it was doing" when it cut off the cash-strapped company's access to loan money, one analyst claimed; a Bloomberg story said the penalty showed the department had at last "found a way" to "rein in for-profit colleges."

But on yesterday's call, a senior education official said the department did not intend to shut down Corinthian and did not know what would happen when it imposed a 21-day delay on Corinthian's access to federal loan money. "We did not know the cash situation," said the official, who would not be identified by name. "We had no foreknowledge that this would be the reaction."

The Department of Education had to make clear it had not intentionally shut down the school in part because of its fraught history with attempts to regulate the for-profit industry, said Ben Miller, a senior policy analyst with the New America Foundation. When the department tried in 2011 to impose regulations that would shut down programs at poor-performing for-profit schools, it was accused of colluding with Wall Street short-sellers that benefited from sharp drops in stocks at for-profit colleges. An audit later cleared the department of wrongdoing, although some Republicans called for a further SEC probe, and a former top official with the department is still under federal investigation for illegally sharing information with an advocacy group.

Miller said the history of allegations relating to short-sellers could also explain why the department appeared to be out of touch with Wall Street, where analysts said they were well aware of Corinthian's precarious financial situation. "If the department starts paying attention to stock prices and analysts reports, open itself up to criticism of being in the pockets of short sellers," said Miller.

The department was not able to respond to an after-hours request for comment.

On the briefing call, the official admitted the disclosure that the department was unaware of Corinthian's dire fiscal situation also calls into question the department's financial oversight measures for colleges. The official said the government's financial monitoring system "didn't work in the case of Corinthian" and that the department recognized the need to look through their financial monitoring system and "see what we missed."

The Department of Education claims it closely monitors the financial situation of for-profit colleges, requiring them to achieve "financial responsibility" scores within a given margin in order to receive federal loan money, which makes up most of the colleges' revenue. In May, Corinthian had warned on its earnings call that its responsibility score might slip below the department's requirements.

The official said the department had expected Corinthian to react no differently than any other school that was placed under "heightened cash monitoring," the government's term for the penalty placed on Corinthian. More than 400 other schools are currently under heightened cash monitoring, the official said.

But Corinthian's financial situation was different than almost any other school: It was already teetering on the edge of default and had a tiny amount of cash on hand, according to publicly available filings. In a May earnings report, Corinthian said it had breached the terms of its bank agreements and was in danger of defaulting on its credit lines with lenders. That report also showed that the cash the company had on hand had plummeted precipitously, from a healthy $209 million in 2010 to just $28 million in the last quarter.

Miller said the department was facing a "no-win" situation in the wake of the Corinthian shutdown — it would open itself up to heavy criticism if it admitted it intentionally closed the school. The Wall Street Journal on Sunday published an editorial slamming the department for its actions with Corinthian, saying it was an "extraordinary violation of due process … akin to a judge issuing the death penalty while a case is in discovery."

Send all questions to the communications director of Breitbart, Boyle says.

Matthew Boyle

Fox Interview

The former Daily Caller reporter who first reported claims that Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez had hired underaged Dominican prostitutes says he's "waiting to see where the investigation goes" into whether his sources for the story were working on the behalf of the Cuban government.

"I'm waiting to see where the investigation goes," Matthew Boyle told BuzzFeed, noting he wanted to be off the record, an agreement BuzzFeed did not agree to before Boyle started speaking.

Days before the 2012 election, the Daily Caller published a story accusing Menendez of procuring underaged prostitutes during a trip to the Dominican Republic. The FBI later investigated the claims, but couldn't corroborate them. The Washington Post reported Monday that the CIA has obtained evidence linking the Cuban government to the prostitution story, including the creation of a shadowy tipster who shopped the story to multiple outlets.

Boyle also told BuzzFeed questions about his work should either be directed to Breitbart's communications director, or cite his column.

"That's how this goes; I'm a reporter," Boyle said, telling BuzzFeed to email the public relations representative for Breitbart.

At Breitbart, Boyle wrote Tuesday he had "no indications" his sources were Cuban intelligence.

In discussions with a wide array of sources in reporting on the story, there were no indications that they were connected to or working for the Cuban government. Additionally, an anonymous tipster who called himself 'Pete Williams,' whose identity remains unknown and the Post story says was actually the creation of Cuba's Directorate of Intelligence, was not a source for the original story and never provided non-public information to this reporter.

In an earlier conversation with Boyle on Tuesday, Boyle had no comment when asked if he had been paid by the Cuban government to write the story and told BuzzFeed to wait for his column to come out later in the day.

Hobby Lobby , 2015, and President Obama.

WASHINGTON — Some of the largest national LGBT rights groups — unified on the marriage equality fight in recent years — have begun a very public debate over a piece of another key goal: religious exemptions in employment protections.

The fight, which broke out into the open on Tuesday, is about scope of religious exemptions in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which was passed by the Senate this past fall. Notably, it comes as an executive order about employment protections is being drafted at the White House and in the wake of last week's Supreme Court ruling in Hobby Lobby.

While the debate isn't new, the method of raising the stakes of the debate on Tuesday was stark: Seven national organizations — including the ACLU and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force — announced in three separate statements that they were withdrawing their support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act due to its current, broad religious exemption.

The lead sponsor of ENDA in the Senate, Sen. Jeff Merkley, told BuzzFeed in a statement that even he has "concerns" about where things stand. Merkley's office said the senator continues to support the bill but that he is looking to make "fixes" going forward with regard to the religious exemption in the bill.

One of the key House co-sponsors, Rep. Jerry Nadler, told the Washington Blade that he thinks the religious exemption is too broad and will work to narrow it in the House.

For years, the religious exemption in ENDA has kept growing. In order to grab more moderate Republican support (and the Democratic holdouts) for the legislation that was first introduced in the mid-1990s, the religious exemption has been expanded enough that Sens. Orrin Hatch and John McCain, along with a handful of other Republicans, supported the bill when the Senate voted on it last year.

Here is the religious exemption in the version of ENDA passed by the Senate this passed fall:

While Title VII provides a broad exemption from its religious anti-discrimination requirements, race, sex, and national origin anti-discrimination measures have a more narrow one. ENDA borrows the broader religious exemption — previously only applied to religious anti-discrimination requirements — and applies it to sexual orientation and gender identity.

In addition to the Task Force and ACLU, Lambda Legal, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Transgender Law Center, and Pride at Work all withdrew their support for ENDA on Tuesday because of that religious exemption.

Supportive lawmakers see that that ground is shifting, although they were not going so far as to oppose the legislation itself. "I am very concerned about the religious exemption in the ENDA bill that passed the Senate," Nadler told the Blade. "I think it is overbroad and I will of course work hard with my colleagues to narrow it appropriately." He added that his concerns were amplified by the Hobby Lobby ruling.

Merkley, in a statement to BuzzFeed, echoed Nadler's concerns, saying, "I share concerns about the Supreme Court's overly broad reading of religious exemptions. I will keep working with advocates and Members on both sides of the aisle to address this issue. Workplace discrimination against the LGBT community wrong and must end."

Although the attention Tuesday was on ENDA, there is no expectation that ENDA will be moving this year in the House — meaning the discussion about the bill is, for the most part, posturing. So, what is the posturing about?

Three things.

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Air Force Fun.

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Following the success of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown , CNN’s new show will bring Walsh back to TV.

CNN

"Caught 106 pimps and recovered 75 little girls under the age of fifteen."

A group of reporters was gathered in the back room of New York's Landmarc restaurant, listening to John Walsh talk about how he spent his time away from television, after the Emmy-award winning America's Most Wanted ended its run of 25 seasons and 1,202 captured fugitives.

Despite successful off-the-air collaborations National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Walsh admitted, "There's nothing like television to put that white-hot spotlight on someone." Now with a new CNN show The Hunt, Walsh's old friend Jeff Zucker is betting that using television as a weapon against crime can provide some ratings continuity for the network's successful new cable news format led by Anthony Bourdain: Part's Unknown.

And it's a good bet: Crime pays on cable news. If you keep up with the day-to-day ratings race, Show's like MSNBC's LockUp, MSNBC Investigates, and HLN's Forensic Files routinely outperform the many of the traditional host-in-a-box format that cable news is known for. Despite the good ratings, those shows are routinely derided by competitors and critics as a trashy crutch used by networks that are lacking enough quality content to fill a 24/7 schedule. By tapping a decidedly non-tabloid reality crime television pioneer like Walsh CNN will be in a position to benefit from the genre's ratings potential and put themselves in contention during the awards season.

At the afternoon eat-and-greet with the media, Walsh looked very promotional tour in a crisp blue suit and tie. But the 68-year-old's distinctly gruff delivery immediately brought to mind the iconic visual of Walsh on TV, clad in a black leather jacket and blue jeans, surrounded by flashing red and blue police lights, ready to take down some dangerous scumbag on the run from the law. And when you boil everything down to a template, Walsh's mission with CNN will be the same as America's Most Wanted's, with a few major differences.

20th Century Fox Television

The production value of the CNN effort, provided by Bourdain's collaborators at the digital production company Zero Point Zero, are a huge upgrade from AMW's low budget video-look. There will also be a shift in point of view — Walsh and Zucker want the show's primary focus to be on the victims rather than the "dirt bag" perpetrators. "I see other shows and they come right in and tromp all over the families and cover it in a salacious way," Walsh said, labeling those shows as, "Tabloid. Exploitive. Cheap." He said to expect something more honorable from The Hunt, promising to "treat the victims with dignity and try to get them some justice."

CNN's approach to social news delivery meshes with their already massive web traffic. And for his part, Walsh touted AMW's web traffic for Fox that, he said, routinely put it in the network's top 5 primetime shows on Fox.com. "We had a huge digital following, and they were loyal," he said, bringing things back to his ultimate goal of catching the bad guys. "The last few years we caught 44 guys off the website alone."

Despite the extra effort from everyone on the digital side, Walsh still believes his real power still comes from the TV. "Television is still the most powerful medium," Walsh told reporters. "Ninety-nine percent of the guys I caught, I caught off of the television show."

Walsh's dedication to the cause and his enthusiasm seems to have rubbed off on the Zero Point Zero team. ZPZ producer Lydia Tenaglia told reporters, "[Walsh] made converts of the whole office. He makes you want to take up arms and go out there and try to track down these people."

"Chris [Collins, ZPZ producer] and I were saying, 'Gosh, whatever awards we've won, the most powerful award will be to actually catch one of the bastards.'"

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A tender moment.

youtube.com

President Obama was stopped by a woman whose brother died in Afghanistan Tuesday. Obama met the woman with at Wynkoop Brewing Company during a stop in Denver with an embrace and gave her a challenge coin usually reserved for veterans.

"I'm so sorry," President Obama said hugging the woman, identified as Kalynne May Arrick from Tyler, Texas.

The women left the bar with with teary eyes, showing off the challenge coin that Obama had just given her, according to the White House pool report.

Arrick's brother, Marine Sgt. Kenneth May, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.

“I really don’t know what he’s thinking,” one Texas Democrat said.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — As President Obama fundraises in Texas today, the message from Democratic members of the delegation is if he's not going to the border now, he needs to go very, very soon.

Rep. Henry Cuellar has been among the most vocal in calling for a presidential tour of the border where thousands of undocumented immigrants — mostly minors — from Central America have crossed over and are being held in detention centers. Cuellar called out the president on MSNBC Wednesday morning, assailing Obama for being a mere 500 miles away from the border and not making a visit.

But the number of Democratic lawmakers calling for a visit is growing, although many did not want to criticize the president on the record. Privately, several Democrats told BuzzFeed that Obama not making a trip was "confusing," "baffling," and "a little offensive."

"I really don't know what he's thinking," one Texas Democrat said. "He just should go."

Rep. Filemon Vela, who represents the border town of Brownsville, told BuzzFeed that it'd be a good idea for the president to visit "if not today, some point in the near future."

Vela was among the many members of Congress who toured the facilities last week and participated in a field hearing on the border crisis.

"It's more about seeing the kids and what they are experience than the facilities themselves," he said. "We've all experienced difficult things in life: either a family member or friend dying or having a serious illness. I've experienced those things as well and aside from those things, I have not in my life seen anything worse … It's the human element, that not just president, but anyone who is going to be involved in making policy with respect to this crisis … should see."

Arizona Democrat Raúl Grijalva said on Tuesday that the border "deserved a presidential visit."

"I think a visit by the president is reaffirming that the borderlands along the southwest border are vital and important to this nation. So I think a visit would be important and very symbolic," he said on MSNBC.

Obama does have his defenders in the delegation. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said the president was doing everything he could right now in the face of the crisis, and that a visit was beside the point. She was confident that he would make the trip soon.

"The president knows Texas very well. I'm very confident he's attending to serious issues by putting forth the supplemental. He's going to meeting with local officials, some of whom I've already spoken to. We have been to the border, many of us," she said in an interview. "His cabinet members have been to the border. I think we will see that visit as time proceeds but there's such a focus on what we need to do here in Washington to make sure local communities are taken care of, and he is doing that."

“Invasion takes many forms.”

Jeff Duncan's Facebook / Via facebook.com

A Republican South Carolina congressman thinks the crisis of undocumented immigrants surging across the border is an invasion similar to the allied invasion of Nazi Europe on D-Day. In a Facebook post, Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina says the surge at border is similar because "invasion takes many forms."

In his post, Duncan says that states will be forced to act on their own to repel undocumented immigration if the federal government fails to act.

People think I am harsh or misguided when I use "invasion" when discussing how it is written in Article 4 Section 4. But think about it like this: "Tourist invade local coastal communities every summer. Invasion takes many forms. 150,000 Allied troops invaded the beaches at Normandy. 300,000 unaccompanied minors have invaded our southern border states (estimated over the past three years). So many that, logistically, they must be moved inland from the "beach head" and be dispersed in order to keep from taxing the resources in the immediate areas.

Duncan also writes it would be "a great idea" to have "freedom loving Americans" take part in an "ADOPT-A-MILE program" to protect a mile of the border.

Heard a great idea last night: an ADOPT-A-MILE program for the Southwest border. Have freedom loving Americans - who respect the rule of law and believe in national sovereignty - adopt a mile of the border. Unfeasible, I know......and it could result in some "good ol' boys" going a little too far to protect their "mile." But it does give a person pause to think about how the federal government has failed to do its job, exacerbated by the wishy-washy rhetoric of the Administration when it comes to deportation, sovereignty (see Sec. Johnson's comments on Sunday news show) and border security.

Duncan's post has been embedded below:

Jeff Duncan Facebook / Via Facebook: RepJeffDuncan

“I never saw it like that…

According to their data, these are America's top states:

Further research has gone on to show that these are America's bottom states:

Via amcharts.com

These states are located right in the middle:

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“I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails.”

An IRS official at the center of the scandal surrounding the targeting of conservative groups apply for tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny warned others "be cautious about what we say in emails."

Lois Lerner, who until 2013 was the director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Unit, noted in an email to another colleague, asking about whether certain types of communication was searchable, that Congress had on "several occasions" asked for email records.

Lerner took the Fifth Amendment before Congress to avoid testifying on the scandal, an action her lawyer maintains was to avoid being bullied.

Here's Lerner's email, released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

Oversight and Investigations Committee

Most recently, emails surfaced showing Lerner suggested referring Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley or a group that was paying him to speak for an audit after accidentally receiving an invitation to an event that was meant for Grassley. After discussion, the IRS did not make any referral.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has also been investigating missing emails related to the IRS scandal.

Utah officials to ask Supreme Court to review appeals court decision that struck down state’s ban on same-sex couples’ marriages.

Chris Geidner/BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — Although the filing isn't expected for weeks, the Utah Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday it will take the issue of same-sex couples' marriage rights back to the Supreme Court.

In June, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Utah's ban on same-sex couples' marriages is unconstitutional. Wednesday is the deadline for the state to ask the full appeals court to rehear that case, a process called an "en banc" rehearing, and Attorney General Sean Reyes's office announced it will not do so.

The attorney general's office will, however, take the case directly to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to hear the appeal. The case, if taken by the justices, would present a second opportunity in recent years for the justices to declare that all state bans like the Utah one are unconstitutional, leading to nationwide marriage equality.

"To obtain clarity and resolution from the highest court, the Utah Attorney General's Office will not seek en banc review of the Kitchen v. Herbert Tenth Circuit decision, but will file a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court in the coming weeks," Herbert's spokeswoman, Missy Larsen, said in a statement. "Attorney General Reyes has a sworn duty to defend the laws of our state. Utah's Constitutional Amendment 3 is presumed to be constitutional unless the highest court deems otherwise."

Utah officials had said they would appeal the case, one way or another, so the decision Wednesday is not a big surprise, but the decision to go directly to the Supreme Court makes a difference in the timing of how the marriage issue will proceed across the nation.

In addition to the Utah case, the 10th Circuit also has heard a case involving Oklahoma's marriage ban. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has heard a case involving Virginia's marriage ban, and the 6th Circuit and 9th Circuit courts of appeals have scheduled hearing in cases involving marriage laws in Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, and Tennessee. The 5th Circuit and 7th Circuit courts of appeals have cases involving Indiana and Texas' marriage laws pending.

Although the petition for a writ of certiorari will only be filed in the Utah case "in the coming weeks," it's possible the lawyers and parties in other cases will try and get their case before the Supreme Court as well. After the first certiorari petition was filed at the Supreme Court in the various DOMA challenges back in 2013, lawyers in several other cases filed petitions for certiorari before judgment — or, before the appeals court even rules on the matter. The same scenario will likely play out here, as the lawyers have aggressively pushed forward on the path back to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is on recess now for the summer, and it isn't likely to consider any certiorari petition until late September. Even then, the court doesn't need to take a case. Its docket is primarily an optional one, and the court could choose to let the lower court decisions stand without Supreme Court review. Only four justices need to vote to take a case, though, in order for it to be heard, and at least four justices already voted once to take a marriage case when they took the appeal of California's Proposition 8. Even though they eventually dismissed that appeal on a technical ground, there were the four votes, at least, to hear the case initially.

Now, the country will be back on marriage watch, with updates coming regularly over the coming months as parties make their case as to why the court should or should not take any of the various cases, with the earliest likely word from the Supreme Court coming early this fall.

If the court does take the Utah case — or another one — the briefing schedule will begin, with the "friends of the court" giving their input and, likely, the Obama administration weighing in as well. Then, if the court accepts a case before mid-January, oral arguments will be held by late spring and everyone will be back on the front steps of the Supreme Court awaiting a decision in late June 2015.

“This isn’t theater. This is a problem.” Obama puts the border crisis on Congress’ shoulders.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Obama warned Congress on Wednesday not to let his plan to deal with the crisis at the border get bogged down in partisan wrangling, even as he teed up his arguments for another political brawl over immigration.

"If I sponsored a bill declaring apple pie American, it might fall victim to partisan politics," the president joked when asked if he was worried his $3.7 billion plan to bolster immigration enforcement would get caught up in Capitol Hill gridlock.

The president said passing the budget supplemental, as well as a separate plan to tweak existing law to make it easier for the government to turn back border crossers without the full asylum hearing currently required by law, was the only way for a short-term solution to the border problem.

"Congress has the capacity to work with all parties concerned to directly address this situation. They've said they want to see a solution," he said. "The supplemental offers them the capacity to vote immediately to get it done."

"There's a very simple question here," Obama said. "Congress needs to just pass the supplemental."

The president also once again called for House Republicans to allow a vote on a comprehensive immigration bill that stalled out in the chamber following a bipartisan vote in the Senate.

"The Senate passed a commonsense bipartisan bill more than a year ago. It would have strengthened the border, added an additional 20,000 Border Patrol agents," Obama said. "It would have strengthened our backlogged immigration courts. It would have put us in a stronger position to deal with this surge and, in fact, prevent it."

Obama rebuffed bipartisan calls for a presidential visit to the border at a speech in Texas following a meeting with that state's governor, Rick Perry. The Republican and several border Democrats have called for Obama to visit the border region where thousands of border crossers have been apprehended in recent weeks.

"There's nothing that is taking place down there that I am not intimately aware of and briefed on," Obama said. "This isn't theater. This is a problem. I'm not interested in photo ops; I'm interested in solving a problem. And those who say I should visit the border, when you ask them what should we be doing they're giving us suggestions that are embodied in legislation that I've already sent to Congress."

But when it came to Perry and Obama, who went through their own partisan theatrics in the past day or so, the president said the pair had found common ground.

"The bottom line is actually that there's nothing that the governor indicated he'd like to see that I have a philosophical objection to," Obama said, saying he wasn't opposed to dispatching National Guard troops to the border as Perry has requested. But Obama said he told Perry he needs Republicans in Washington to work with him if the border problem will be solved quickly.

"One of the suggestions I had for Gov. Perry was that it would be useful for my Republican friends to rediscover the concept of negotiation and compromise," Obama said.

“When I went to Charlotte, I definitely said we can do as good or better than Charlotte.”

The front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Republican National Committee site selection committee announced Tuesday it would recommend Cleveland to host the 2016 Republican National convention.

Numerous Cleveland elected officials such as Mayor Frank Jackson were happily celebrating the news of the convention coming to Cleveland, but perhaps no one benefits more than Ed FitzGerald, the Cuyahoga County executive and Democratic nominee for governor who played an early role in bringing the convention to the city.

FitzGerald, the first county executive of Ohio's most populous county and the home of Cleveland, showed an early interest in bringing a 2016 political convention to the city.

"I remember when Cleveland tried to get the convention in 1992," FitzGerald told BuzzFeed about his quest to bring a political convention to the city.

It was FitzGerald, along with his chief of staff and David Glibert, the president of Positively Cleveland, the region's convention and visitors bureau, who took a day in Charlotte during their 2012 convention to see how Cleveland could get it to their city.

"The county executive was very involved in pushing for the convention," Gilbert said. "It was a fact-finding trip. We met with from the host committee, Chamber of Commerce, City of Charlotte.."

"When I went to Charlotte, I definitely said we can do as good or better than Charlotte," said FitzGerald.

Cleveland has twice hosted the Republican presidential nominating convention. The 1924 convention nominated Calvin Coolidge who went on to win reelection. In 1936, Kansas governor Alf Landon was nominated and crushed by Franklin Roosevelt, losing nearly every state (including Ohio).

FitzGerald said failed bids by Cleveland to host the convention in 2008 and 2012 made clear "we needed to get started very, very early putting a team together."

While some people had felt "burned" in the past by failed bids, this bid unlike past ones, "had county participation" and eventually "people came around to this," he said.

One of the reasons that Cleveland needs the convention that the city is one of the places were nationwide perception of the city is most distorted from reality, FitzGerald argued.

"On a national political blog, they were talking about the river catching on fire," he said. "They have some kind of perception that was formed in the 1970s and it's not reality."

FitzGerald said a new 600 guest room Hilton Hotel coming to city in 2016, and which he broke ground on this year with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, and Hilton exectuive Ted Ratcliff was crucial to securing the city as a finalist.

"One of the reasons given in the past was that are hotel capacity was too far below what their standards were."

Asked how the perception and news of the convention coming to a city that is a reliable Democratic stronghold in the state, FitzGerald the majority of people are happy about the economic boost it will provide the city.

"The vast majority of people say 'the Republican convention has to come somewhere and it's going to be an economic boost for the city. It might as well be here."

FitzGerald says the effort and passion put forth by the city was what helped secured the convention.

"I knew that Dallas at the beginning could just put more money on the table," he added.

"The RNC told us that we had the most powerful presentation."

The Obama administration is running TV, radio, and print ads in the countries where thousands of undocumented immigrants, many of them children, are coming from. The White House is asking Congress for money to run more.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has begun running ads in Central America meant to stop people from leaving their native countries and heading for the U.S.–Mexico border.

The ad campaign, launched this week by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), is meant to dispel rumors in Central American countries about U.S. immigration policy, especially for children, who have crossed the border in high numbers in recent months.

Additionally, deep in the Obama administration's request for $3.7 billion to address the ongoing crisis at the border, is a second, relatively small sum. The $5 million State Department request would "support State Department media campaigns in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, targeting potential migrants and their families," according to White House fact sheet on the larger supplemental budget request announced earlier this week.

State Department representatives haven't responded to multiple requests for comment on what the ad campaigns might look like. But the Border Patrol campaign offers insight into the kinds of messages the United States wants to get out in Central America.

The CBP says the ads are focused on delivering three messages:

1. The journey is too dangerous;
2. Children will not get legal papers if they make it.
3. They are the future—let's protect them.

There's also a major focus on explaining that children sent to America illegally do not get to stay.

The message from the U.S. government on immigration is clear—if you cross illegally into the U.S.:

- you cannot earn a path to citizenship;
- you are not eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA;
- you will not get papers that allow you to stay; and
- you are putting yourself, or your child, in danger.

At a July 2 press conference, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said the ads were aimed at stopping border crossing before it starts. The dangers described in the campaign are real, he said, and said 226 would-be immigrants died making the trip to the border since October.

A CBP spokesperson told the Harlingen, Texas, Valley Morning Star that the ads are meant to counter the seductive claims of coyotes, who take thousands of dollars from poor families with the promise of a life in the U.S. for their young relatives.

"We want a relative that is about to send $5,000, $6,000 to a relative in El Salvador to see this message and say, 'Oh my god, they're saying that the journey is more dangerous,'" CBP spokesperson Jaime Ruiz told the paper. "We try to counter the version of the smuggler."

Watch the ads CBP is broadcasting in Guatemala:

Via dvidshub.net

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“This was a betrayal of everything the UNCF stands for,” AFSCME president says.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — One of the nation's largest public-sector unions is severing its ties with the United Negro College Fund because the group accepted donations from the Koch brothers and its president spoke at a Koch-funded summit.

In a letter sent Tuesday, AFSCME President Lee Saunders wrote that the UNCF has taken actions "deeply hostile" to public employees, which he considers a "profound betrayal of the ideals of the civil rights movement," and that the union will end its relationship with UNCF.

Saunders cited the UNCF's decision to accept a $25 million grant from Koch Industries, Inc. and the Charles Koch Foundation as a reason for the split, as well as the decision by UNCF President Michael Lomax to speak at a summit hosted by the Kochs in California.

The Kochs have donated tremendous amounts of money to advance conservative political causes in recent years, as well as well as various philanthropic efforts.

Saunders wrote that he was "deeply troubled" by the grant, but assumed Lomax was "in no way supporting" the views of the Kochs:

Saunders later described the Koch brothers as the "single most prominent funders of efforts to prevent African Americans from voting."

AFSCME's relationship with the UNCF revolved around their Union Scholars Program, in which sophomore- and junior-year college students could work with AFSCME during the summer and receive scholarship support aftwerward.

That program will cease on Sept. 1.

"We must hold ourselves to the same standards that we promote through the Union Scholars Program," Saunders wrote. "To practice what we preach, to fight for social justice, and to stand up for what we beleive. I cannot in good conscience face these students or AFSCME's members if I looked the other way and ignored your actions."

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