GitMo: President Obama in a news conference renewed his call to shut the terrorist holding center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “It hurts us in terms of our international standing, it lessens cooperation with our allies on counter-terrorism efforts, it is a recruitment tool for extremists, it needs to be closed,” the President said. Obama first ran on a pledge to close GitMo but Congress hasn’t let him.

National: US home prices are on the rise but individual ownership is still declining, according to recent reports. Investors are snapping up houses causing prices to go up at the fastest rate since the housing bubble.

• Libertarian politician Ron Paul says authorities used “police state” tactics in their hunt for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings. Residents were forced out of homes and businesses were closed while police conducted unwarranted searches. Paul wrote in a Libertarian website, “The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city.”

Wounded in Inaction: A half-dozen senators who voted against extended background checks for gun purchases have suffered serious dips in their approval ratings, according to Public Policy Polling. Leading with a swan dive is Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska whose approval rating is down from 54% to 38%. The state where guns are as common as garden tools favors background checks by 60%.

World: The count of the dead in the Bangladesh factory collapse is now at 400, with 149 people still missing. The five factories in the building had sewn for some noted labels including Benetton and The Children’s Place.

New Morning: The Food and Drug Administration decided to make the “morning after” pill an over-the-counter drug available to girls as young as 15. Until now the day-after pill was prescription only for girls under 17.

The Obit Page: Deanna Durbin, who in a brief Hollywood career was a big name as the girl with spunk, and who once was among the highest paid women in America, has died at 91. After starring in 21 movies she married a French director … her third marriage … and retired to a French farmhouse. In 1946 she made almost $325,000, only slightly less that Bette Davis. But she later said she was never really happy making movies.

In Black and White: Even though the show is about white British gentry, the popular television series “Downton Abbey” has been criticized for lack of color in its cast. The show has now hired actor Gary Carr to play jazz singer Jack Ross.

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