Environmentalists give Barack Obama a pass on oil spill – Josh Gerstein – POLITICO.com.

Rue McClanahan, who played sexed-up Blanche Devereaux–a randy Southern belle who was as quick with the bons mots as she was with the double entendres–on The Golden Girls from the mid-’80s to the early ’90s, died Thursday at age 76 of a stroke. McClanahan died within two years of her Golden Girls costars Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty, leaving Betty White as the only surviving Golden Girl.

via Armchair Commentary: Rue McClanahan, 1934-2010.

Actor Dennis Hopper, whose 50-year film career spanned such classics as “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Easy Rider,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Blue Velvet” died Saturday following a battle with prostate cancer, Reuters reported. He was 74.

via FOXNews.com – Actor Dennis Hopper Dies at 74 After Suffering From Prostate Cancer.

Gary Coleman, the adorable, pint-sized child star of the smash 1970s TV sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” who spent the rest of his life struggling on Hollywood’s D-list, died Friday after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.

via ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ star Gary Coleman dies | The Daily Caller – Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment.

Thailand’s Red Shirts offered peace talks Monday to end raging street battles that have killed at least 37 people in Bangkok as a government deadline demanding the demonstrators vacate a protest zone passed without capitulation.

Helicopters buzzed over the demonstration site fortified with long wooden spikes and tires in the heart of the capital’s commercial district, dropping leaflets ordering anyone inside to leave immediately.

via FOXNews.com – Thai ‘Red Shirts’ Offer Peace Talks After General Dies.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been critical of Arizona’s new immigration law, said Thursday he hasn’t yet read the law and is going by what he’s read in newspapers or seen on television.

Mr. Holder is conducting a review of the law, at President Obama’s request, to see if the federal government should challenge it in court. He said he expects he will read the law by the time his staff briefs him on their conclusions.

“I’ve just expressed concerns on the basis of what I’ve heard about the law. But I’m not in a position to say at this point, not having read the law, not having had the chance to interact with people are doing the review, exactly what my position is,” Mr. Holder told the House Judiciary Committee.

via Holder hasn’t read Arizona law he criticized – Washington Times.

President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court on Monday, declaring the former Harvard Law School dean “one of the nation's foremost legal minds.” She would be the court's youngest justice and give it three female members for the first time.

The nomination to replace liberal retiring Justice John Paul Stevens set the stage for a potentially bruising summertime confirmation battle before the court begins its next session, though mathematically Democrats should be able to prevail in the end.

via Obama picks Kagan for Supreme Court – Supreme Court- msnbc.com.

Lena Horne, who broke new ground for black performers when she signed a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night in Manhattan. She was 92.

via Lena Horne, Sultry Singer and Actress, Dies at 92 – Biography – NYTimes.com.

The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP's internal investigation.

While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, the sequence of events described in the interviews provides the most detailed account of the April 20 blast that killed 11 workers and touched off the underwater gusher that has poured more than 3 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.

via FOXNews.com – Methane Gas Bubble Triggered Deadly Oil Rig Explosion.

One of the unfortunate tendencies of certain Washington lawmakers is a reluctance to acknowledge mistakes and, if necessary, correct them.

The Obama administration argued last year, for instance, that the stimulus bill was needed to keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent. More than a year later, the jobs report released today puts national unemployment just a whisker below 10 percent.

But don't hold your breath for the administration to give taxpayers their money back.

via Opinion: Early Results on Health Care Reform Aren’t Good – AOL News.

A California high school principal has apologized for telling five students they couldn't wear U.S. flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo, the local superintendent said Friday.

Tensions at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill had risen in the wake of the decision to forbid the shirts, as the students who wore the shirts defended their right to show their patriotism — even on a Mexican holiday — while a large group of Hispanic students staged a walkout Thursday in protest.

via FOXNews.com – California Principal Apologizes for Forbidding U.S. Flag Shirts on Mexican Holiday.

Hot Air » Breaking: Last Navy SEAL acquitted of abusing Iraqi terrorist; Video: SEAL interview added.

Greece's fiscal crisis took a new turn to violence Wednesday when three people died in a firebomb attack amid a paralyzing national strike, while governments from Spain to the U.S. took steps to prevent the widening financial damage from hitting their own economies.

U.S. Treasury officials have been quietly urging their European and International Monetary Fund counterparts to put together a Greek rescue plan more quickly to contain the damage, it emerged Wednesday, as U.S. policy makers worry the continent's problems could undermine a U.S. recovery much as U.S. housing woes hammered Europe in 2008.

via Europe Crisis Deepens As Chaos Grips Greece – WSJ.com.

Do you employ unpaid student interns — college students who work in exchange for on-the-job training?

If so, President Obama's Labor Department says that you're an exploiter. The government says an internship is OK only if it meets six criteria, among them that the employer must get “no immediate advantage” from the intern's activities. In fact, the employer's work “may be impeded.”

via RealClearPolitics – Obama’s Labor Department vs. Unpaid Interns.