“Maryland, United States” on The Daily Caller

(CNN) — Anti-establishment candidates are capitalizing on widespread anti-incumbent fervor and proposing term limits as a way to bring the power back to the people. (more)

Earthquake strikes epicenter of government-sponsored vice–a sign from God? — Prosecution rests in case of Blago v. The World — Google is laying the groundwork for a royal screw-job — Cat lovers attack Pres. Obama’s fiscal commission — Democrats continue to deny benefits to poors — Goldman Sachs up  (more)

Tira Jones can recognize desperation in a caller’s tone. When she was an unemployed single mother in need of a financial boost, her voice used to sound the same way. (more)

This week the President’s Council of Economic Advisors released a report claiming that the 2009 Stimulus Act had created or “saved” 3 million jobs. They further stated that the Act would be responsible for 3.5 million jobs by the end of the year. Coincidentally, this is the exact number of jobs predicted by the Council when the bill was passed. (more)

Heritage Action for America, the Heritage Foundation’s grassroots advocacy spin-off, is urging congressional leaders to sign on to Iowa Rep. Steve King’s discharge petition, aimed at repealing Obamacare. (more)

Janet Yellen, the president’s pick to be the second-highest ranking official at the Federal Reserve, acknowledged Thursday that regulators were slow to crack down on risky banking practices that stoked the 2008 financial crisis. (more)

In a rare departure from this year’s intense political posturing over the soaring budget deficit, House leaders of both parties recently signaled that they are prepared to tackle a leading long-term liability — Social Security — by raising the retirement age. (more)

Top Republican party officials are questioning the health of the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) finances following an announcement that the RNC will have $12 million less to spend on “get out the vote” efforts for November’s midterm elections than anticipated in previous budget projections. (more)

(AP)  For the third time in as many weeks, Senate Republicans on Wednesday successfully filibustered a bill to continue providing unemployment checks to millions of people. (more)

It was interesting being in Kenya this past week while the World Cup football (soccer) matches were being played near-by in South Africa. When Kenyan’s interrupted their viewing of a match to converse with me and learned that I was an American they inevitably wanted to know how I thought President Obama was doing. I hated telling them. The current World Cup in South Africa, however, made viewing Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” on the plane on the way home even more moving than it would have been anyway. The movie dramatizes South Africa’s first post apartheid president, Nelson Mandela’s, decision to save and embrace South Africa’s national soccer team, “Springboks,” so loved by white South African’s and thus hated by black South Africans, as an element of his program of national reconciliation. (more)

As the Senate geared up last week for Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings which began yesterday, the American Bar Association’s controversial Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously (with one abstention) rated Kagan “well qualified” to serve on the Supreme Court, its highest rating (the other two ratings are “qualified” and “not qualified”). This comes as no surprise for those who follow the ABA’s supposedly “nonpartisan” ratings of judicial nominees; it seems that once again the ABA is slyly using its same old rating tricks—and jeopardizing its credibility—as it has many times before. (more)

Imagine being gang-raped. Imagine the pain it causes, the shame it inflicts and the endless trauma it bears. Now, imagine being told just months later that you’ve contracted HIV as a result. This is the story of Elizabeth Shepherd. (more)

I have had to remind myself of late that there is much to be proud of as an American. And I have not been prouder for a long time than I was Tuesday night listening to this year’s recipients of the Merage Foundation for the American Dream’s National Leadership Awards. Paul Merage family’s foundation is dedicated to “Helping Immigrants Join Mainstream America.” Mr. Merage is himself an immigrant from Iran, which he left in 1979 by necessity. But his choice to settle in the United States was his, and the Merage Foundation is one of his ways of expressing thanks for the opportunities that opened up to him here and to give something back to help keep America the dynamic, innovative home to immigrants that has been such an important component of our success as a nation. (more)

Last August, shortly after his arrival at the federal correctional complex in Butner, North Carolina, Bernard L. Madoff was waiting on the evening pill line for his blood-pressure medication when he heard another inmate call his name. Madoff, then 71, author of the most devastating Ponzi scheme in history, was dressed like every other prisoner, in one of his three pairs of standard-issue khakis, his name and inmate number glued over the shirt pocket. Rec time, the best part of a prisoner’s day, was drawing to a close, and Madoff, who liked to walk the gravel track, sometimes with Carmine Persico, the former mob boss, or Jonathan Pollard, the spy, had hurried to the infirmary, passing the solitary housing unit—the hole—ducking through the gym and the twelve-foot-high fence and turning in the direction of Maryland, the unit where child molesters are confined after they’ve served their sentences. As usual, the med line was long and moved slowly. There were a hundred prisoners, some standing outside in the heat, waiting for one nurse. (more)

Most women who want to be known for their grace and etiquette might aspire to win a beauty pageant. But appearing honest and attractive is not the only thing that people around the world are competing for. (more)

BEL AIR, Md. — The reception that Representative Frank Kratovil Jr., a Democrat, received here one night last week as he faced a small group of constituents was far more pleasant than his encounters during a Congressional recess last summer. (more)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Have a burning sensation? Consult your doctor. Have a burning question for Matt Labash? Submit it here. (more)

Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia are backing the family of fallen Marine Matthew Snyder in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case that could decide the constitutionality of laws restricting protests at private family funerals. (more)

It didn’t take long, Miles Harrison said, for the familiar lacrosse stereotypes to resurface. Within a day after a University of Virginia lacrosse player was charged with murdering a female player, the Baltimore surgeon said somebody told him, “‘There are those lacrosse guys again.” (more)

House Democrats are scrambling to jumpstart a long-stalled effort to trim the federal budget, spurred by deficit worries that have left them unable to push much of their agenda. (more)