Weiner-gate continues to fade. Real stuff continues to reassert itself in Wisconsin and Washington. We've got our eye on a couple of events today, Sen. Sanders' news conference, and the House vote on taking food out of the mouths of the poor. Check back later for today's Outlook and Underbuzzed. Meanwhile, here's your Morning EDition:
TODAY
- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held a news conference at 10:30 today on a new bill giving the CFTC more power to bring down gas prices.
- NBC/WSJ poll to be released tonight.
- House considering Agriculture Appropriations Bill today. Votes expected this afternoon.
ECONOMY
- Interactive chart: See which legislators caused the deficit.
- House GOP pushes bill that simultaneously lets Wall St. push up food prices and strips poor women and kids of assistance to buy food.
- Summer means hunger for kids who rely on school lunches.
- GOP cuts for seniors and the poor could be paid for with one day of the Bush tax cuts.
- White House pushes job-creating tax cuts with Republicans.
- Debt negotiators not ruling out job stimulus.
- Senate narrowly votes against repealing ethanol subsidies.
- Does the ethanol vote mean the anti-tax dogmatism is weakening among GOP senators?
- Some GOP senators are cheesed off at anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist.
- Analysis: The ethanol vote actually highlights just how powerful the anti-tax GOP dogmatism is.
- House GOP slashes food aid in agriculture spending bill (while protecting farm subsidies).
- Fmr. chief IMF economist says US companies are healthy, it's the politics that is sick.
- The housing crash is now also worse than the Great Depression's was.
- White House lobbies lobbyists to lobby for raising the debt ceiling.
- Sen. DeMint says Obama wants a debt crisis.
- CBO chief: Debt default will increase the deficit.
- Republican Fed chair urges debt-ceiling increase.
- House Dems say GOP censoring mailings to constituents on economic plans.
- House GOP Leader Cantor tells members: We have to approve spending to cut it.
- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) opens the door to entitlement cuts.
- Report predicts small business will do more firing than hiring this summer.
- Medicare cuts hurt GOP districts more.
- AZ Republicans will let jobless benefits expire for 15,000 this week.
WAR
- GOP shows widening rift on neo-con adventurism.
- Will neocons bite their tongue out of party loyalty?
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-NC) calls Mitt Romney Jimmy Carter for wavering on Afghanistan.
- White House responds to Speaker Boehner's newfound concern about military legality.
- Another month, another Boehner opinion on Libya.
- A brief history of Boehner and war.
- Kucinich files lawsuit against Libya operations.
TERRORISM
- Pentagon official: US lacks a WMD strategy.
WAR ON DRUGS
- Chart: On the "war"'s 40th anniversary, cops, judges and prison guards rally against its mounting costs.
GAS AND FOOD PRICES
- CFTC Chair Gary Gensler urges delay in cracking down on Wall St.
- Gas prices are down. (But are they where they should be?)
- VIDEO: Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) claims speculators have no effect on gas prices.
CORPORATE AMERICA
- VIDEO: GOP, Chamber of Commerce team up to defend the right to bribe foreign officials.
- Regulators set requirements for on-hand capital to mitigate losses.
CLASS WARFARE
- The number of rich paying no taxes has doubled.
- Consumer-Finance Protection agency may open its doors with its hands tied.
- GOP governors pushing back on Medicaid rules.
UNIONS
- Retail-workers union tries to organize Wal-Mart, without forming a union.
- Minn. state rep. sends email comparing unions to Hitler.
WISCONSIN
- Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds law restricting right of workers to organize.
- VIDEO: Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) has to pull down doctored YouTube clip.
CALIFORNIA
- VIDEO: California Republican airs stunning ad against Democratic opponent. Willie Horton's got nothin' on this one.
MINNESOTA
- In battle over taxing the richest, Minnesota hurtles toward a shutdown.
HEALTH CARE
- Media ignore report exonerating health-care waiver program.
RIGHT-WING MEDIA
- Their political endorsements are for sale.
OBAMA 2012
- Report finds almost 200 bundlers from 2008 got jobs, contracts or other benefits from the Obama Administration.
GOP 2012
- Meetings suggest Giuliani is weighing a bid. Or not.
- Analysis: The early debates are auditions for the donor class.
JON HUNTSMAN
- Huntsmentum is fueled by...Bushies!
RICK PERRY
- Perry touts Texas economy as proof of need for federal deregulation (Spoiler: Federal regs apply to Texas, too, meaning according to Perry, state economies can boom under Obama regulations).
ANTHONY WEINER
- Focus on the Family says Christianity can save Jewish member of Congress.
- DNC chair cites things that apply more to Clinton than Weiner, to explain why Weiner should resign, but Clinton should not have.
- Some Dems hope Weiner's wife will get him to resign.
(What I'm reading: Greg Sargent's Plum Line, Think Progress, Matt Yglesias, The Wonk Room, Talking Points Memo, TPMDC, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, the Washington Monthly, the National Journal, Ezra Klein, Politico's Playbook and Huddle, Dave Weigel, Wonkette, Firedoglake, the NYT Caucus, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars. What my iPod has me listening to: Sandinista! by the Clash.)
Follow Senior Producer Jonathan Larsen (@jtlarsen) on Twitter