CNN Poll: President Obama's not so bad week

Photo by Pete Souza

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama comes out of what was arguably the worst week of his presidency with his approval rating holding steady, according to a new national poll.

But a CNN/ORC International survey released Sunday morning also indicates that congressional Republicans are not overplaying their hand when it comes to their reaction to the three controversies that have consumed the nation's capital over the past week and a half. And the poll finds that a majority of Americans take all three issues seriously.

According to the survey, which was conducted Friday and Saturday, 53% of Americans say they approve of the job the president is doing, with 45% saying they disapprove. The president's approval rating was at 51% in CNN's last poll, which was conducted in early April.

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Video: Seth Meyers & Amy Poehler Ask IRS 'Really?!

During last night's "Saturday Night Live" season finale, Amy Poehler reunites with her old partner Seth Meyers to ask: "Really?!"  The two tackled the recent IRS scandal that has been one of the favorite topics of DC politicians and "Talking Heads" around the country.

The "Weekend Update" duo ripped into the I.R.S., the Tea Party, and President Obama as they asked the question on all our minds: "Really?!" 

Yahoo Is Planning to Buy Tumblr for $1.1 Billion

Marissa Mayer

Yahoo’s board has agreed to buy Tumblr, the popular blogging service, for about $1.1 billion in cash, people with knowledge of the agreement said on Sunday.

The deal, sealed at a meeting of Yahoo’s board, is expected to be announced as soon as Monday, said one the people, who was not authorized to speak ahead of the announcement.

A spokeswoman for Yahoo declined to comment. A representative from Tumblr was not immediately available.

The acquisition is the biggest yet under Yahoo’s chief executive, Marissa Mayer, as she attempts to reinvent the once-embattled Web pioneer’s fortunes. Under her, the company is seeking to make up for years of missing out on the growing use of social networks and mobile devices.

Read Full Article - The New York Times

Police Officer Accidentally Kills Hofstra University Student

MINEOLA, N.Y. — In what police are describing as a crime of opportunity, a wanted man with a criminal history dating nearly 15 years entered a front door that had been left open at a New York home near Hofstra University.

A short time later, the intruder, Dalton Smith, and a 21-year-old college junior, Andrea Rebello, were both dead. The two were killed early Friday by a Nassau County police officer who fired eight shots at the masked man, hitting him seven times but also accidentally hitting Rebello once in the head, Nassau County homicide squad Lt. John Azzata said Saturday.

Smith was holding Rebello in a headlock and pointing a gun at her head before he turned his gun at the officer, Azzata said, prompting the shooting.

Read Full Article - The Washington Post

Job market gains could lead Fed to taper QE3 early

Ben Bernanke 

(Reuters) - The beginning of the end of the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying program might come sooner than many investors think if recent gains in the U.S. labor market do not prove fleeting.

Much will depend on how economic data, which has given mixed signals for growth prospects, develops over the next few months. Reports on job growth in particular will go a long way in helping Fed officials determine whether the time is right to trim the pace of their $85 billion in monthly purchases.

The marked improvement in the labor market since the U.S. central bank began its third round of quantitative easing, or QE3, has added an edge to calls by some policy hawks to dial down the stimulus. The roughly 50 percent jump in monthly job creation since the program began has even won renewed support from centrists, raising at least some chance the Fed could ratchet back its buying as early as next month.

Read Full Article - Reuters

Hero cop, who sat next to the first lady, charged with rape

(CNN) -- A former "top cop," who had the honor of sitting next to first lady Michelle Obama during a televised presidential speech four years ago, is facing rape allegations.

Richard DeCoatsworth left a party with two women on Thursday, according to authorities.

The women called authorities and said once they arrived at a second, undisclosed location, the retired officer pulled a gun on them, the Philadelphia Police Department said in a statement.

He allegedly forced them "to engage in the use of narcotics and to engage in sexual acts," the statement said. He was charged with rape on Saturday.

Read Full Article - CNN News

Congress Battles Over Food Stamp Program

A heated battle is brewing on Capitol Hill over cuts to the food stamp program, with lawmakers quoting Bible verses at each other and benefits for millions of people hanging in the balance.

Nearly 47 million people – one in seven Americans – rely on food stamps for some of all of their daily sustenance, according to the Department of Agriculture, a number that has grown nearly 70 percent since the financial collapse of 2008.  

The increased enrollment has caused costs to soar from $35 billion in 2007 to $80 billion last year, and now lawmakers in both the House and the Senate are targeting program for cuts even as advocates cry foul.

Legislation making its way through Congress would eliminate billions of dollars in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps.

Read Full Article - NBC News

2012 Election: Gallup Review To Show New Details On What Went Wrong

Romney-Obama (VOA)

BOSTON -- Gallup, the company that has faced intense criticism after its polling consistently understated President Barack Obama's support during the 2012 campaign, shared details of its ongoing review of its election polling methods on Saturday.

Over a four-week period before the November 2012 election, Gallup's daily tracking poll showed Republican opponent Mitt Romney leading by margins ranging from 1 to 7 percentage points, including a 4-point Romney lead just 10 days before the election. Obama defeated Romney by a 51 to 47 percent margin.

Shortly after the election Gallup's editor-in-chief Frank Newport pledged to conduct an internal review of Gallup's telephone survey methodology. As promised, Newport reviewed on Saturday the kinds of studies conducted on issues including drawing samples...

Read Full Article - Huffington Post

Powerball: 1 winning ticket sold in Florida

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — It's all about the odds, and one lone ticket in Florida has beaten them all by matching each of the numbers drawn for the highest Powerball jackpot in history at an estimated $590.5 million, lottery officials said Sunday.

The single winner was sold at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla., according to Florida Lottery executive Cindy O'Connell. She told The Associated Press by telephone that more details would be released later.

"This would be the sixth Florida Powerball winner and right now, it's the sole winner of the largest ever Powerball jackpot," O'Connell told AP. "We're delighted right now that we have the sole winner."

She said Florida has had more Powerball winners than any other state.

Read Full Article - Yahoo News

Two California tickets reap $2.3 million each in Powerball lottery

Read Article - The Los Angeles Times

Harry Reid eyeing July for the `nuclear option’

Harry Reid

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is increasingly focused on the month of July as the time to exercise the so-called “nuclear option” and revisit filibuster reform, and he has privately told top advisers that he’s all but certain to take action if the Senate GOP blocks three upcoming key nominations, a senior Senate Democratic aide familiar with his thinking tells me.

Reid has privately consulted with President Obama on the need to revisit filibuster reform, and the President has told the Majority Leader that he will support the exercising of the nuclear option if Reid opts for it, the aide says, adding that senior Democrats expect the President to publicly push for it as well. “If Senator Reid decides to do something on nominations, the president has said he’ll be there to support him,” the aide says.

Reid is eyeing a change to the rules that would do away with the 60-vote threshold on all judicial and executive branch nominations, the aide says...

Read Full Article - The Washington Post

At Preakness, Orb’s Challengers Include Childhood Friend

BALTIMORE — They shared the same paddock and gamboled in the same Kentucky bluegrass as weanlings and yearlings. Orb hit the ground first at Claiborne Farm, with Departing tumbling out of his mother a month later. Now 3 years old, the two horses will be reunited Saturday in the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes.

Since Orb won the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, the world has gotten to know the strapping colt, how he was painstakingly bred by one of the first families of American horse racing — even how he got his right nostril caught and stretched in his stall last fall and how he has won five straight races since.

Outside Louisiana, horse racing enthusiasts know little about Departing, a gelding who has won four of his five starts, including an impressive three-and-a-quarter-length victory in the Illinois Derby. But he is perhaps Orb’s most formidable challenger in the compact field of nine. 

Read full Article - The New York Times

Update:

Oxbow Wins Preakness 2013

Oxbow and Gary Stevens ensured the Triple Crown drought will continue at least one more year.

Cannes: Man fires blanks, sends actors, onlookers running for cover

(CNN) -- A man was arrested Friday at the Cannes Film Festival after firing a gun loaded with blanks during a live television interview, sending an Oscar-winning actor running for cover.

Canal+ was interviewing Christoph Waltz, who won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in "Django Unchained," and actor Daniel Auteuil when a man fired two shots from a starter pistol, according to authorities and the French television station.

The man allegedly had a dummy grenade in one hand, and footage and photographs of the incident show Waltz and Auteuil being taken offstage and attendees scrambling for cover.

Read Full Article - CNN News

Related Article:

$1 million in Chopard jewelry stolen from Cannes hotel room

Read Article - New York Post

60 injured, five critically, as trains collide in Connecticut

Sixty people were injured, five of them critically, and rail traffic from New York to Boston was shut down after a Metro-North commuter train derailed and plowed into a second train Friday in Fairfield, Conn., Gov. Dan Malloy said.

An eastbound train derailed at 6:10 p.m. ET and struck a westbound train between the Fairfield and Bridgeport stations, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority official told NBC News.

"We have no reason to think it was anything other than an accident, but that has to be explored," Malloy said.

Read Full Article - NBC News

Wisconsin Woman Uses Shotgun to Club an Attacking Bear

A Wisconsin man survived a bear attack thanks to his wife's unique use of a shotgun.

Gerre Ninnemann, 74, and his wife, Marie Ninnemann, 71, from Green Bay, Wis., were at a cabin in Silver Cliff, Wis., on Wednesday afternoon when the husband saw a 200 pound black bear pursuing their golden retriever, Maddie, according to ABC affiliate WBAY-TV.

"Apparently, his dog was barking," Lt. Jim Albright of the Marinette County Sheriff's Department told ABCNews.com. "When he checked on his dog, he saw the bear and went to get the bear away from his dog."

It worked, but the bear turned around and headed for Gerre Ninnemann, Albright said.

"I was so afraid the bear was going to get the dog," he told WBAY. "I didn't take time to go inside and get a gun so there I am unarmed and facing an insane bear."

Read Full Article - ABC News

Video: Huge Rock Crashes Into Moon, Sparks Giant Explosion

Nasa

(Space.com) - The moon has a new hole on its surface thanks to a boulder that slammed into it in March, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen on the moon since they started monitoring it.

The meteorite crashed on March 17, slamming into the lunar surface at a mind-boggling 56,000 mph (90,000 kph) and creating a new crater 65 feet wide (20 meters). The crash sparked a bright flash of light that would have been visible to anyone looking at the moon at the time with the naked eye, NASA scientists say.

"On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office said in a statement. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before." [The Greatest Lunar Crashes Ever]

Read Full Article - Yahoo News

Powerball jackpot: Now a whopping $600 million

Saturday's whopping $550 million Powerball jackpot just got even bigger: a record $600 million.

For those opting for one-time cash payment, that's worth a pre-tax $376.9 million.

Surging ticket sales prompted the Multi-State Lottery Association to boost the Powerball jackpot Friday, hours ahead of tonight's drawing for rival Mega Millions lottery, which has a $190 million jackpot. State lottery officials say the combined $790 million jackpots are the biggest ever for a weekend lottery.

Although the odds of winning either jackpot are 1 in 175 million, Powerball and Mega Millions are getting plenty of dreamers.

Read Full Article - USA Today

Minnesota lakes are loaded with chemicals -- even cocaine

Pose Lake

From urban and developed to remote and isolated, lakes around Minnesota contain a wide range of chemicals, including DEET, BPA, prescription drugs and even cocaine.

The findings, which came out of the first large-scale, systematic statewide study, suggest that it might be worth taking a wider look at bodies of water around the country for chemicals that have potential consequences for both the environment and human health.

For now, it’s not clear how all of the chemicals are getting into Minnesota’s lakes or exactly what effects they might be having on animals or people.

Read Full Article - NBC News

IRS commissioner: I did not mislead

Washington (CNN) -- A huge increase in workload, rather than deliberate targeting, led to "foolish mistakes" and the political discrimination in the Internal Revenue Service cited by an inspector general's report, the agency's outgoing commissioner said Friday.

The testimony by Steven Miller, who was forced to announce his resignation this week as acting IRS commissioner, came at the first congressional hearing on the matter that has put President Barack Obama's administration on the defensive.

Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the Republican-led panel, and other GOP members sought to depict the controversy as indicative of government gone wild, with the IRS abusing conservative groups and other political foes of the administration.

Read Full Article - CNN News

‘Wonder Woman’ on TV? CW is redeveloping series for ‘trickiest’ hero

Will a Wonder Woman TV series ever get off the ground? The CW isn’t giving up yet.

The network had been developing a pilot called “Amazon” about teenaged Diana (think “Smallville’s” pre-Superman Clark Kent), but the series was passed over for the CW’s fall lineup.

When asked Thursday if the warrior princess could still come to the CW, network President Mark Pedowitz said, “Oh God, yes!

“It is being redeveloped,” he said. “We’re waiting for the script to come in. We have not seen it yet. We are preparing to pilot it off-cycle should the script be what we want it to be.”

Pedowitz said that although “the basics” were all there, the execution was lacking.

Read Full Article - The Los Angeles Times

Black Sabbath Premieres New Song, ‘The End of the Beginning,’ on ‘CSI’

Black Sabbath on CSI (Photo: CBS)

For weeks now, the Black Sabbath promotions department has been reminding fans and the press that the season finale of "CSI" would include a snippet of a song from Black Sabbath’s new album, 13, which comes out June 11.

On Wednesday, Universal Republic Records made good on their word, and fans didn't even have to wait long to see the heavy metal legends in action — or at least lip-syncing the new song. Viewers who tuned in late, figuring Sabbath would be saved for the end of the show, missed the whole thing.

As soon as the "TV14" rating popped up in the top left hand corner of the screen, the band screamed into action. 

Read Full Article - Yahoo Music

Benghazi emails have different quotes than earlier reported

(CBS News) WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama called Thursday for tighter security for U.S. diplomatic facilities to prevent an attack like the one in Benghazi, Libya, last year that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The Benghazi attack is a political controversy. Republicans claim the administration watered down the facts in talking points given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for television appearances while Obama was running for re-election. Republicans on Capitol Hill claimed they found proof in White House emails that they leaked to reporters last week. It turns out some of the quotes were wrong.

Republicans have charged that the State Department under Hillary Clinton was trying to protect itself from criticism. The White House released the real emails late Wednesday. Here's what we found when we compared them to the quotes that had been provided by Republicans.

Read Full Article -CBS News

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Syria Begins to Break Apart Under Pressure From War

Azaz Syria

CAIRO — The black flag of jihad flies over much of northern Syria. In the center of the country, pro-government militias and Hezbollah fighters battle those who threaten their communities. In the northeast, the Kurds have effectively carved out an autonomous zone.

After more than two years of conflict, Syria is breaking up. A constellation of armed groups battling to advance their own agendas are effectively creating the outlines of separate armed fiefs. As the war expands in scope and brutality, its biggest casualty appears to be the integrity of the Syrian state.

On Thursday, President Obama met in Washington with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and once again pressed the idea of a top-down diplomatic solution. That approach depends on the rebels and the government agreeing to meet at a peace conference that was announced last week by the United States and Russia.

Read Full Article - The New York Times

Dick Trickle dies of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound

Dick Trickle

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) - Authorities in North Carolina say former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle has died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 71.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says authorities received a call believed to be from Trickle on Thursday saying that “there would be a dead body and it would be his.” Authorities tried to call the number back, but no one answered.

Read Full Article - The Washington Post

More about Dick Trickle

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Obama Picks Temporary IRS Chief: Report

Photo by Pete Souza

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama will appoint senior White House budget officer Daniel Werfel to be acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, a White House official says.

Werfel will replace Steven Miller, ousted Wednesday amid revelations that the IRS improperly singled out conservative groups for special scrutiny.

The 42-year-old Werfel is the controller of the Office of Management and Budget, a job akin to a chief financial officer. Though Werfel was appointed to that job by Obama, he also worked during the administration of President George W. Bush.

The official was not authorized to speak on the record about the announcement and revealed Werfel's appointment on the condition of anonymity.

Read Full Article - Huffington Post

"The Big Bang Theory": Expect a cliffhanger in season finale (Video)

Listening to actor Simon Helberg talk about "The Big Bang Theory," you'd think his show was actually a nerdy nighttime soap. The actor, who plays aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom, dropped a few hints about what to expect from Thursday night's season finale.

"This time, the adventure is for Leonard," Helberg revealed, referring to the experimental physicist played by Johnny Galecki. "Howard finds Stephen Hawking's crew is sending out an expedition to the North Sea, and he gets Leonard a job, going on a boat for four months."

But there's no easy scientific equation that can tell Leonard how to choose between the expedition and his street-smart girlfriend Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco.

Read Full Article - CBS News

Mom chases down daughter's alleged kidnapper

A determined and courageous mother chased the man who abducted her little girl across Albuquerque Wednesday evening before crashing into his car and launching a massive police search.

The 5-year-old girl apparently is OK after she was shoved from the kidnapper's car close to the abduction site and found wandering near her apartment.

The mother, who was in cell-phone contact with the police during her pursuit, thought her daughter was still a prisoner, according to an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman.

After the crash the man fled into a neighborhood igniting the massive police response.

Read Full Article - KRQE News 10

Mom chases, crashes into child abductor

REPLAY: President Obama - Turkish P.M. Erdogan Press Conference

President Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan press conference in the rose garden

David Beckham To Retire At End Of Season

David Beckham

LONDON (AP) - David Beckham is retiring from soccer after the season, ending a career in which he become a global superstar since starting his career at Manchester United.

The 38-year-old Englishman recently won a league title in a fourth country with Paris Saint-Germain. He said in a statement Thursday he is "thankful to PSG for giving me the opportunity to continue but I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level."

Beckham has two games left this season with PSG. He also played for Real Madrid and the Los Angeles Galaxy, winning titles with both those clubs as well as with United.

Read Full Article - Huffington Post 

New GOP debt-limit demands: Ban late-term abortion and approve Keystone pipeline?

U.S. Capitol 

While much of Washington was enthralled by Benghazi e-mails and the IRS scandal, House Republicans began quietly planning their strategy for the next showdown over the debt limit, now believed to be at least four months away.

At a two-hour listening session Wednesday afternoon in the basement of the Capitol, rank-and-file lawmakers offered suggestions for handling an event that, in 2011, blew their approval ratings to smithereens.

The good news: This time around, most GOP lawmakers agree they probably should not block a debt-limit increase, halt Treasury borrowing and let the government default on its obligations. According to GOP aides who attended the meeting, the “hell no” caucus appears to be radically diminished.

Read Full Article - The Washington Post

Can NASA's Planet-Hunting Kepler Mission Be Saved?

Kepler spacecraft (NASA)

There's a chance that NASA's Kepler space telescope can recover from the malfunction that has halted its wildly successful search for alien planets, mission team members say.

The second of Kepler's four reaction wheels — devices that allow the observatory to maintain its position in space — has failed, depriving Kepler of the ability to lock precisely onto its 150,000-plus target stars, NASA oficials announced Wednesday (May 15).

But mission engineers are not conceding that Kepler's planet-hunting days have come to an end, vowing to try their best to recover the failed reaction wheels over the coming weeks.

Read Full Article - Yahoo News

Kepler Breakdown Imperils NASA’s Hunt for Other Earths

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has been shut down by the failure of one of the reaction wheels that keep it pointed, the space agency announced Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t call Kepler down and out yet,” said John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut and Hubble repairman who is NASA’s associate administrator for space science, at a news conference.

But he and others said that if engineers could not restore the wheel or find some other way to keep the spacecraft’s telescope precisely pointed, the failure could end one of the most romantic and successful of NASA’s missions: the search for Earth-like planets in habitable orbits around other stars. Just last month, astronomers reported that Kepler had found two planets, only slightly larger than Earth, orbiting a star 1,200 light-years from here in the Goldilocks zone, where liquid water is possible.

Read Full Article - The New York Times