“Best Wishes, Donald Trump”: A Future President's Letter to Vanity Fair  —  The Donald has inveighed (in Sharpie!) against our intrepid blogger.  We found his comments so delightful, we had to share.  —  It was with great delight and a sense of kinship that we at Vanity Fair read Donald Trump's letter …

Chris Matthews: Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan Will ‘Kill Half the People Who Watch My Show’  —  MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Monday spent much of show scaring viewers about Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) recently released budget proposal.  —  So apoplectic was the “Hardball” …

Michele Bachmann takes on heckler in Iowa  —  IOWA CITY, Iowa — Michele Bachmann said again Monday that the American intervention in Libya was a mistake — but this time she had to talk over a heckler who shouted vulgarities at her.  —  Jenny Watkins, 22, shouted at Bachmann …

D.C. Mayor Vince Gray arrested on Capitol Hill  —  Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and other top city officials were arrested on Capitol Hill Monday during a protest of the budget deal House Republicans cut with President Barack Obama.  —  A crowd of about 200 to 300 gathered near …

Japan rates nuclear crisis at highest severity level  —  TOKYO — Japanese authorities raised Tuesday their rating of the severity of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis to the highest level on an international scale, equal to that of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Statement & Account of Ramona Kitzinger, Waukesha Board of Canvassers member since 2004:  —  (Waukesha County Democratic Party)On Tuesday night, I received a voice message from someone in the office of Clerk Kathy Nickolaus informing me of a Wednesday canvass meeting, which I returned …

Chicago school bans homemade lunches, the latest in national food fight  —  Students who attend Chicago's Little Village Academy public school get nothing but nutritional tough love during their lunch period each day.  The students can either eat the cafeteria food—or go hungry.

President Open to Deal on Debt Cap  —  White House officials have opened the door to a deal with Republicans that would allow the U.S. to increase its ability to borrow, potentially easing worries in financial markets that the country might default on its debt.

Gas Prices Climbing Toward $5 Per Gallon  —  CHICAGO (CBS) - At one time, $5 per gallon gas seemed like a farfetched idea, but that is no longer the case.  —  As CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports, as of Monday, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the Chicago area is $4.11 …

Our Structural Disadvantage  —  The intertubes are clogged with the choral wailing of frustrated liberals.  Digby provides a good example, but the same is available pretty much anywhere else you'd think to look. … This is exactly right.  But what's strange is that it almost seems to come as a surprise to people.

Democrat in Missouri to Oppose Health Care Law  —  KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri's Democratic attorney general broke with his party on Monday and urged a federal judge to invalidate the central provision of the new health care law.  —  The filing of the court brief by Attorney General Chris Koster …

Blaska Blogs the smoking gun of the teachers union's illegal sick-out  —  Only a fool would think that the sick out that closed down Madison schools for five days in February was anything but an illegal, union-coordinated, illegal strike.  —  But there are a lot of fools in Madison, aren't there?

Koran Burned in Iran (video)  —  Two anonymous young men in Iran, one Iranian and one Afghan, have burned a Koran in protest.  This seven-and-a-half minute long video shows the two men, their faces obscured, holding the Muslim holy book and reading prepared statements.

Chevy Recalls Cruze After A Steering Wheel Falls Off … Imagine turning your car's steering wheel, or giving it a gentle tug, and having it break away from the steering column.  Now you're speeding along holding the suddenly useless wheel.  —  It sounds like a vision from a cartoon, or every driver's nightmare.

Barack Obama faces problem on left, not right  —  I don't think Barack Obama will have a hard time defeating his Republican opponent in 2012, barring a financial meltdown or a major foreign crisis.  It's a Democratic opponent he should worry about.  —  Obama continues to anger progressives …

Leading California Democratic strategist Kam Kuwata dies at 57  —  This post has been corrected.  See the note at the bottom for details.  —  Kam Kuwata, one of California's leading Democratic political strategists and a droll wit whose lively quotes and keen analyses enlivened many campaigns …

Jonathan Alter out at Newsweek  —  The final member of the “Newsweek Six” has left the building.  —  Jonathan Alter, the only remaining member of the gang of television-loving newsweekly scribes so dubbed by Slate's Jack Shafer, is no longer with the publication.

The Defenders  —  Charleston Harbor, S.C., April 12, 1861  —  Among the private papers of Maj. Robert Anderson, commander of the Union garrison at Fort Sumter, is a single elegant sheet of faded lavender-blue notepaper, neatly creased where it was once folded between the gloved fingers of a Confederate adjutant.