Morning Reads

Good morning! Happy Friday, and happy Turtle Day, whatever that is. Also, 80 years ago today, the cops finally caught up with Bonnie and Clyde.

Burning down the house –> Alexander Smith and Erik Ortiz report for ABC News that thousands of northern Arizona residents are preparing to flee their homes after a wildfire grew tenfold. AND: The AP’s Seth Borenstein writes that “at least three different studies and reports have warned that wildfires are getting bigger, that man-made climate change is to blame, and it’s only going to get worse with more fires starting earlier in the year.”

“Obsession with hiding the details” –> Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin blamed the logjam in prosecuting those responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the CIA’s refusal to disclose info about its Bush-era detention program. William Douglas and Ali Watkins report for McClatchy.

So much for BENGHAZI!! –> Rep. Darrell Issa must be pretty mad about being sidelined by John Boehner’s select committee. So mad that he released a classified email that he says proves the White House hurried to settle on a false narrative. Unfortunately for him and the committee, it may actually prove the White House in fact did believe that the attacks on our consulate were inspired by an inflammatory Islamophobic video. Still with us? Brian Beutler has the story for New Republic.

Poverty wages are the real “job-killers” –> Harold Meyerson writes at the WaPo that the state with the fastest rate of job growth also has the highest minimum wage in the country — and the city producing the most jobs has the highest minimum of any metropolitan area.

Backfired –> Conservative smear merchant James O’Keefe claimed that one of his infamous “stings” proved that Hollywood environmentalists are hypocrites. But one of his targets recorded their entire conversation, and it reveals that O’Keefe’s story was a result of careful and selective editing. Caitlin Dickson has the story at The Daily Beast.

Wait, there’s a reform wing? –> Jonathan Chait writes that a group of reform-minded GOP pundits are having a hard time reconciling themselves with the actual Republican legislative agenda.

Getting the story straight –> At Atlantic Cities, economist Heather Boushey says it wasn’t household debt that set up the Great Recession so much as the fact that the most vulnerable American households held a disproportionate share of it.

On the sidelines –> At the Center for Public Integrity, Dave Levinthal reports that retired politicians and candidates who are no longer seeking office are holding around $100 million in idle campaign cash that could be used for charity.

Blinded by ideology –> Emma Roller at National Journal: “The House Science Committee has held more hearings on aliens than on climate change.”

There’s no war –> John Boehner said during his weekly press conference that the “distinction” between Republicans and the tea party is one that “you’ll have a hard time finding.” ALSO: Salon’s Jim Newell notes that while the conventional wisdom holds that the Chamber of Commerce has been the big winner so far in GOP primaries, the candidates the group has backed are hostile to key items on its agenda.

The black klansman –> At The Raw Story, Travis Gettys tells the tale of a black detective who was “so good at using racial slurs he accidentally got elected KKK leader” in the 1970s.

Overjoyed –>  Stephen Colbert couldn’t be happier about the problems at the VA because he finally has a real scandal.

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