I mentioned earlier that the feds case against alleged ricin-letter-sender Kevin Curtis may be hitting a few bumps in the road with a disconcerting lack of evidence. We’ve just gotten word that this morning’s hearing has been abruptly canceled and authorities have scheduled a press conference to discuss the status of the case at 5 PM local time this afternoon.
What’s notable is that AP reports that this is supposed to be a joint press conference with federal prosecutors and defense attorneys for Curtis. Given what’s come out over the last 24 hours, it’s hard for me to imagine they’d do that if they remained in an adversary context.
House GOP committee chairman now refuses to take testimony from Richard Cordray, the recess-appointed head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau whose nomination Republicans have been blocking.
If last week was the week from hell, with barbaric crime and a horrific industrial accident, the ricin letters sent to President Obama and Sen. Wicker (R-MS) turned out to be the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the tragic proceedings — evil, bizarre but eventually harmless. But before we get any deeper into the morning, I wanted to flag to your attention that there now seems to be a non-trivial chance that the feds got the wrong guy. Read More
Did you know that hospitals can deport you through something called ‘medical repatriation.’
Despite a show of optimism, reviving background checks in this Congress looks like a really, really heavy lift.
Benjy Sarlin takes us inside the longshot, can-they-do-it effort to sell the right on immigration reform. Good piece. And for the moment, hard not to give Rubio his due, that he’s actually going all out to sell this thing on the right.
As I’ve mentioned a few times, at the end of next month we’re introducing a new version of TPMPrime which will be fully integrated into the rest of the site. One part of that will be a streamlined layout with fewer ads for members. We’re showing some early mock-ups of what that’s going to look like in this Prime thread. Curious to get your feedback.
Background check double-talk catches up with Sen. Flake (R-AZ).
There were strongly conflicting opinions on TV today on whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev deserves Miranda rights.