The feuding has commenced again, complete with shootin’, spittin’ and cussin’ (not to mention corncob pipes and moonshine). But the hills where the latest Hatfields vs. McCoys skirmish has flared up are not in the Appalachians, where the battle dragged out over decades near the West Virginia/Kentucky border. Read full article > >

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Hatfields and McCoys square off again — but on unfamiliar terrain

JPMorgan Chase has spent upward of $20 million on lobbying and campaign contributions in the past three years. On Tuesday, the bank received a healthy dividend on that investment. Its chairman, Jamie Dimon, has admitted that the firm was “sloppy” and “stupid” in making trading bets that lost $2 billion. But Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee wouldn’t hear of it; they preferred to blame government. Read full article > >

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Senators put federal regulators, not JPMorgan, on the hot seat

It is the Hope Diamond of liberal ideas: pure, breathtaking and highly impractical in the real world. The proposal has been submitted for consideration in every Congress since 2001, and the idea behind it is that the federal government could stop wars, pacify street gangs and distill violence out of the American soul itself. All it would take was a new Cabinet-level department and $10 billion a year in taxpayer money. Read full article > >

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‘U.S. Department of Peace’ may never get its chance

President Obama stopped by a Washington sandwich shop Wednesday to pick up some hoagies for a lunch with Capitol Hill leaders at the White House — and to make his latest pitch for Congress to support his economic agenda. Read full article > >

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Obama tries to sandwich Republicans on jobs plan, at a Washington deli

The number of people applying for jobless benefits declined sharply last week, the government reported Thursday, providing a surprisingly upbeat signal leading into Friday’s jobs report. The drop in applications for unemployment assistance fell by 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 365,000, the largest weekly drop in nearly a year, the Labor Department reported. The four-week average, a less volatile measure of the rate of layoffs around the country, was up slightly to 383,500 last week. Read full article > >

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Drop in weekly jobless claims is bright news ahead of April unemployment report

BOULDER, Colo. — President Obama reached out to crucial young voters here and in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Tuesday with a promise to keep college affordable, in the first two of three campus appearances in battleground states this week spotlighting this key voting group. Read full article > >

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Obama takes his student loan pitch to campuses in North Carolina, Colorado

Disruption and agitation have always been key elements in Ian Svenonius’s music, so it was a little odd to watch Chain and the Gang performing on the Black Cat Backstage on Thursday night. Svenonius just looked so . . . content. Read full article > >

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Ian Svenonius, in a happy place with Chain and the Gang

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Perfection isn’t so much a pursuit at Augusta National Golf Club as it is a practice. So there remains the possibility that, come Thursday morning, the azaleas, long since the victims of an early spring, will somehow bloom fresh. The trees felled by a violent storm Tuesday night will somehow re-root themselves. The ground soaked by more than an inch of rain will dry up, and the Masters will be what the Masters almost always is: a roars-from-all-corners, don’t-turn-away-lest-you-miss-something rite of spring. Read full article > >

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Masters 2012: Golf’s best players, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, are playing their best

More than two dozen Santa Monica College students were pepper-sprayed Tuesday night after they tried to enter a trustees meeting while chanting “Let us in” and “No cuts, no fees, education should be free.” Read full article > >

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Santa Monica College students pepper-sprayed while protesting expensive courses

The killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman — the case where nothing makes sense, nothing — gained greater clarity in the last couple days. The story put forth by the Sanford Police Department and by Zimmerman “friend” Joe Oliver is starting to crumble. Read full article > >

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Jonathan Capehart: George Zimmerman’s crumbling story, part 1: the video

In an interview with Salon, the chairman of President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign says he personally apologizes to people who “were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved.” Ken Mehlman came out as gay in 2010 . Read full article > >

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Ken Mehlman apologizing for role in Bush campaign

The biggest Mardi Gras parade floats aren’t just a background for drunken revelry, or a vehicle for dispensing beads — they’re works of art that, in some cases, take nearly an entire year to plan and build. Read full article > >

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Fat Tuesday floats: The art of the parade

There seems to be a bit of confusion amongst Republicans about whether their critical Michigan primary on Feb. 28 is open to independents and Democrats. A colleague called the Republican National Committee the other day and was told by a spokesman that it was closed. Read full article > >

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Republican primary, Democratic mischief?

The government’s new consumer watchdog on Monday outlined the first steps of its plans to regulate mortgage servicers, which have come under fire for fraudulent foreclosure practices . The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will revamp the billing statements sent to homeowners and the disclosures required for some complicated mortgages. It also is drafting new rules to prevent servicers from improperly charging consumers for homeowner’s insurance. Read full article > >

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CFPB outlines plans for mortgage servicers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected a last-ditch appeal by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to drop a contempt charge against him for refusing to obey its order to reopen old corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. Read full article > >

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Pakistan’s high court rejects prime minister’s appeal to block contempt charge