Good morning! Today is the second of three Friday the 13ths this year — the next one will be in November.

On this date in 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a memo proposing a variety of schemes to achieve “regime change” in Cuba — including detonating bombs in New York and Miami and blaming the attacks on the Cuban government. And in 1963, Ernesto Miranda was arrested on charges of kidnapping, rape and armed robbery. He confessed to the crime, but the Supreme Court set aside his conviction and ordered that police had to inform suspects of their rights before interrogating them — this gave birth to the “Miranda Warning.” Prosecutors later retried and convicted Miranda without entering his tainted confession into evidence.

Unexpected –> According to Politico’s Burgess Everett, Republicans have been “caught off guard by the backlash to a letter warning Iranian leaders against a nuclear agreement with President Barack Obama.” Some staffers tried to play the letter down as a “lighthearted” attempt to urge the Obama administration to consult Congress; Sen. John McCain said that he and his fellow signatories approved the letter in haste as they prepared to flee the capital ahead of a snowstorm. AND: In an exclusive for Reuters, Louis Charbonneau reports that “major world powers have begun talks about… lift[ing] UN sanctions on Iran if a nuclear agreement is struck with Tehran, a step that could make it harder for the US Congress to undo a deal.” ALSO: Sen. Marco Rubio got a remedial lesson on the Middle East’s conflict lines on Wednesday when he suggested to Secretary of State John Kerry that the Obama administration hasn’t been sufficiently aggressive in rooting out the Islamic State for fear that it would upset Tehran — which has itself been battling IS in Iraq. Jim Newell has more at Salon.

Exceptional Americans –> According to Pew surveys of citizens in 44 countries, the US stands out for its religiosity — especially among wealthy countries — optimism and belief in individualism, among other things. George Gao has more details at WaPo.

Wolves in sheep’s clothing –> The progressive community has been relatively unified in its opposition to the mega-trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But this week, a new “progressive” group sprung up seemingly from nowhere to provide Politico a story about how the issue is dividing the left. Evan McMorris-Santoro and Kate Nocera report for Buzzfeed that liberal Democrats say the appearance of this new front-group is a sign that there aren’t enough votes on Capitol Hill to move the treaty forward.

It keeps getting worse –> Earlier this week, it was revealed that several allegedly drunk Secret Service agents smashed a car into a security barrier at the White House. Now Carol Leonnig and Peter Hermann report for WaPo that they drove directly through an active bomb investigation, almost running over a package that a woman had earlier claimed to contain an explosive device.

Is Bernie going wobbly? –> Jonathan Topaz writes for Politico that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, long believed to be considering a presidential run, “genuinely doesn’t like talking about it.” He adds that Sanders “doesn’t have the money he needs for a campaign and isn’t sure he can raise it.” RELATED: Politifact has a fairly detailed rundown of the issues surrounding Hillary Clinton’s emails. They find that while technically she may not have broken any rules, she clearly violated their “spirit.”

Lies and statistics –> Jeb Bush frequently claims that more African-American and Latino students attend Florida universities today than before he signed a law eliminating the Sunshine State’s affirmative action program in 1999. Politifact finds that claim to be “mostly false.”

“Cracks in Kremlin unity” –> The recent assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov has exposed rarely seen tensions between different camps inside President Vladimir Putin’s system of rule,” according to Reuters’ Christian Lowe and Jason Bush. MEANWHILE: The Guardian’s Alec Luhn reports that Vladimir Putin hasn’t been seen in public for a week, and Russian social media are buzzing with rumors that he’s seriously ill or dead after “a string of meetings were canceled and the Kremlin published old photographs to claim work was proceeding as usual.”

The next standoff? –> Congress’s next contrived crisis may come when funding for the nation’s highways runs out May 31. According to The Hill’s Keith Laing, “Both parties say they want to avoid a repeat of last month’s tense standoff over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. But the likelihood of an impasse increases with each day that passes without an infrastructure reauthorization bill, and transportation advocates warn that more brinkmanship would be disastrous.”

“A new degree of pettiness” –> The White House announced new sanctions against a handful of Venezuelan government officials this week, saying the country has become a threat to US national security. At Salon, Marcy Wheeler writes that the claim is “so absurd” that it “has focused more attention on [other] dubious claims about national security made to sustain the sanctions.”

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