Rod Nordland, a former Baghdad bureau chief for Newsweek, says the U.S. military “has started censoring many [embedded reporting] arrangements.” “They want to know your slant on a story – they use the word slant – what you intend to write, and what you have written from embed trips before. If they don’t like what you have done before, they refuse to take you.”

The right-wing American Family Association is suing “to stop Michigan State University from offering health insurance to the partners of gay workers,” claiming the policy violates a 2004 state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage “in substance if not by label.”

$75.19: the closing price of one barrel of crude oil yesterday, a record-high. “The unrelenting demand for oil in the U.S. and Asia and the nuclear standoff with Iran forced up oil prices even before North Korea pushed them into record territory by test-firing missiles.”

Cyber-insecurity at the FBI: “A government consultant, using computer programs easily found on the Internet, managed to crack the FBI’s classified computer system and gain the passwords of 38,000 employees, including that of FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.”

Conservative Felipe Calderon has retaken the lead over left-leaning Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in a recount of Mexico’s “closest ever presidential election.” Read more