Welcome to The WonkLine, a daily 9:30 a.m. roundup of the latest public policy news. This is what we’re reading. Tell us what you found in the comments section below. You can also follow The Wonk Room on Twitter.
National Security
“Government warplanes renewed airstrikes [in Libya] on Tuesday after taunting rebels with flyovers and bombing runs near this coastal city’s oil refinery, seeking to drive opposition forces back toward the east in what appeared to be a slide into civil war.”
Monday, President Obama “tried to raise the pressure on Colonel Qaddafi further by talking about ‘a range of potential options, including potential military options’ against the embattled Libyan leader.”
President Obama yesterday “reversed his two-year-old order halting new military charges against detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, permitting military trials to resume with revamped procedures but implicitly admitting the failure of his pledge to close the prison camp.”
Justice
President Obama nominated Ed DuMont, a widely respected lawyer with bipartisan credentials, to a largely non-ideological appeals court that deals primarily with patent law. DuMont has now waited 11 months for a Judiciary Committee hearing due to GOP delay tactics. This obstruction couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that DuMont is gay.
Justice Sotomayor revealed during a speech at Northwestern Law School that she was subjected to questions about her dating habits from senators when she was a nominee. “I was convinced they were not asking those questions of the male applicants.”
The Federal Elections Commission is kinda a joke.
Economy
“Banks and debit card companies are engaged in an all-out assault on Capitol Hill, enlisting a growing cadre of lawmakers and lobbyists to push for changes, delay or outright repeal” of a rule limiting the fees that can be charged for the use of debit cards.
President Obama has named Commerce Secretary John Locke to succeed John Hunstman as the U.S. ambassador to China.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the Obama administration’s fix for sick corporate pensions.
Education
President Obama today “plans to tout his administration’s $90 million plan to create a new education research initiative modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.”
Legislation in Illinois that would ban teacher’s strikes finally fades away, Progress Illinois reports.
California legislators have proposed “reducing the size of Cal Grants to students at for-profit institutions to the amount available to Cal State and community college students.”
Immigration
An editorial in the Kansas City Star urges Gov. Sam Brownback to take the lead on immigration reform and oppose the harsh bills that are moving through his state.
A Washington state bill that would have required applicants for driver’s license to provide proof of residency and a Social Security number was voted down.
Utah tourist promoters who feared passage of “Arizona-style” immigration bills lauded the approval of moderate immigration-related bills that would allow certain undocumented immigrants to obtain work permits.
Climate Change
Top climate scientists write that the “science-free approach” of the Republican Party “serves only the interests of oil and coal producers and other big polluters who don’t want Congress — or the American people — to know what decades of scientific research have revealed about current climate trends and the growing future risks we face.”
Today’s GOP science witness Donald Roberts falsified data in testimony to Congress in 2004.
Mardi Gras is a sodden mess across much of the country, with flooding in Connecticut and New York.
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