National: In a White House shakeup UN Ambassador Susan Rice is replacing Tom Donilon as national security advisor. It’s bound to irritate Republicans who blocked Rice from becoming Secretary of State.

• Organizers of several Tea Party and conservative groups testified before Congress yesterday that they were singled out for scrutiny by the IRS because of their political beliefs. They had applied for tax-exempt status under a law that limits political activities. Questioning from Republicans was sympathetic, but Illinois Democrat Jim McDermott said some of the groups were clearly supporting political causes and candidates. “We are talking about whether or not the American public will subsidize your work,” he said.
• Gov. Chris Christie ordered a special election to fill the empty New Jersey senate seat rather than make an appointment that would anger one political party or the other. But Republicans are angry anyway because he could have appointed one of their own to fill what was a Democratic seat. He’s also under fire for calling this $24 million election three weeks before the Nov. 4 general election in which he’s running for a second term.

Pleas: Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is expected to describe today how he killed 16 Afghan civilians in a rampage over a year ago. Bales is pleading guilty to avoid the death penalty and must admit exactly what he did.

• The judge in the Colorado movie theater shooting case accepted James Holmes’s plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Holmes now has to submit to a lengthy psychological examination to determine whether he actually was insane when he opened fire killing 12 people and injuring 58.

World: Government forces in the last few days have taken the Syrian border city of Qusayr, dealing rebel forces a serious setback. About 500 rebels died in weeks of fighting while much of the city was reduced to rubble.

Big: The tornado that tore through El Reno, Okla. last Friday was the widest ever measured, 2.6 miles, an EF-5 with winds up to 295 mph. It took 40 minutes to grind a path 16 miles long.

Stories We’re Not Reporting: Kate Winslett is pregnant; Kim Kardashian is divorced … and pregnant; the reason for Michael Douglas’s throat cancer; what the president of Ohio State said about Catholics; the trans-gender Navy SEAL; Sean Parker’s fairytale wedding; the father in Nazi uniform and the worker at Taco Bell who licked the stack of shells.

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