Here’s our guide to the top 10 super PAC contributors through Jan. 31, the latest date for which donors have been required to disclose. Unless otherwise noted, all estimates of net worth are from Forbes. (See our PAC Tracker for an interactive breakdown of all the money going to super PACs and others.)

The world’s oceans are turning acidic at what could be the fastest pace of any time in the past 300 million years, even more rapidly than during a monster emission of planet-warming carbon 56 million years ago, scientists said on Thursday. [Reuters]

As energy companies from Spain, Russia and Malaysia line up to drill for oil in Cuban waters 60 miles from the Florida Keys, U.S. agencies are struggling to cobble together emergency plans to protect fragile reefs, sandy beaches and a multibillion-dollar tourism industry in the event of a spill. [Washington Post]

Members of the reinsurance industry urged Congress yesterday to prepare the country forrising weather perils from climate change. [E&E News]

Health impacts from the radioactive materials released in the Fukushima Daiichi meltdownswill probably be too small to be easily measured, according to experts assembled by the Health Physics Society for a panel discussion on Thursday. [NYT]

Residents of storm-tossed midwestern towns searched for photographs and mementos from their ruined homes on Thursday as the death toll from a line of tornado-producing storms rose to 13, while more storms bore down on the region. [Reuters]

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney on Thursday channelled his inner Stephen Harper in a speech touting the Keystone XL pipeline as a “no-brainer,” while accusing President Barack Obama of failing to understand the value of Canadian oil to the U.S. economy. [Vancouver Sun]

Legendary Sherpa mountaineer Apa is on a quest to draw attention to the danger of moredevastating floods in the Himalayas as glacial melt caused by climate change fills mountain lakes to the bursting point. [,a href='http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/everest-hero-highlights-flood-threat-in-himalayas-1.3572186'>AP]

The cost of gasoline is going up while the cost of natural gas is going down, driving a resurgent interest in natural gas vehicles. [NPR]

In just the past few months, projects were announced in Florida and California that will attract hundreds of millions of dollars in energy-efficiency investments financed through the Property Assessed Clean Energy program, better known as PACE. [Houston Chronicle]

China’s cheap labor isn’t the major cause of the hole we’ve found ourselves in with advanced technology manufacturing, which is capital intensive, not labor intensive; rather, China gives its manufacturers whatever advantage it can over U.S. and other foreign competitors. [Detroit Free Press]

The trial that will determine the extent of any liability U.K.-based oil company BP and its partners face for the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is scheduled to begin next week in New Orleans federal court. [Bloomberg]

The Keystone XL pipeline really is a big deal for what it portends about the growing climate risks of our oil dependence. [Politico]

Oil prices spiked to their highest levels since 2008 on fears that tensions with Iran have the potential to disrupt supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. [CNN]

MORNING MESSAGE: Who Is Keeping DeMarco In Charge Of Housing?

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: ”George W. Bush brought a far-right ideologue named Edward DeMarco into the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and therefore has power over more than half the mortgages in the country. Now DeMarco’s Acting Director of the FHFA, and where those mortgages are concerned he’s king. Three years after becoming President, Barack Obama can’t get his own appointee into the job – because of GOP Sen. Richard Shelby … President Obama made a very moderate choice when he appointed Joseph Smith to replace DeMarco. … That didn’t stop Shelby from claiming, with characteristic discourtesy and disrespect, that Mr. Smith would be a ‘lapdog’ for the Administration. Shelby then resorted to the characteristic procedural chicanery for which he has become so infamous, and killed Mr. Smith’s nomination by placing another ‘hold’ on it. And that’s how America’s mortgages fell under the iron fist of the unelected Shelby/DeMarco regime.”

Pressure Rising On DeMarco

More and more government officials pressing FHFA’s Edward DeMarco to quit resisting mortgage reform. Politico: ”For months, [Rep. Elijah] Cummings has been demanding DeMarco offer debt reduction for homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages … now, with a range of supporters that includes California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan, the Baltimore Democrat is aiming to beat DeMarco’s resistance …”

Click here to tell DeMarco ”help underwater homeowners — or be removed.”

Former Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Chair Phil Angelides presses WH to robustly fund new bank investigation, in NYT oped: ”Claims of financial fraud against companies like Citigroup and Bank of America have been settled for pennies on the dollar, with no admission of wrongdoing … Meager resources have been applied to investigate the financial assault on our country … the [new] working group must have a strong and independent staff with the budget, expertise and training to do the job. This is vital given the bureaucratic inertia so far. Mr. Holder’s commitment of 55 lawyers, investigators and other staff members is a start, but far short of what is needed.”

Still no final language on foreclosure fraud settlement. HuffPost: ”…the deal … isn’t final until the government files it in federal court. Until then, the public is left to guess whether the settlement is as tough on the banks as the government claims and whether the promised enforcement mechanisms to ensure banks are playing by the rules have real teeth.”

People moving their money from banks to credit unions. LAT: ”Consumers fed up with the rising tide of bank fees helped the nation’s credit unions more than double their number of new customers last year, new figures show. More than 1.3 million Americans opened new credit union accounts last year, up from less than 600,000 in 2010…”

President Renews Effort To End Oil Subsidies

President pushes to end subsidies for Big Oil. The Hill: ”…Obama is betting that the plan will resonate with the public amid high gas prices and soaring oil company profits … The GOP hopes to pin voter anger over high gas prices on Obama. They argue Obama hasn’t done enough to expand domestic drilling and criticize his rejection of the Keystone oil XL pipeline as contributing to higher prices.”

President also derides conservative obsession with drilling. HuffPost: ”‘Anybody who tells you that we can just drill our way out of this problem does not know what they’re talking about, or they’re not telling you the truth — one or the other,’ Obama said at an event held in New Hampshire to tout his energy policies. He noted that, in fact, oil production in the United States has hit its highest level in eight years, that more rigs are operating in the U.S. than in the rest of the world combined, that more than 400 drilling permits have been granted since the massive BP oil spill, and that for the first time in 13 years, oil imports account for less than half of all U.S. oil consumption.”

GOP Won’t Stop Fighting Contraception

After Senate defeats GOP anti-contraception bill, Republicans refuse to give up. Politico: ”The most likely path ahead is in the House. At a press conference shortly before the Senate vote, House Speaker John Boehner said he’s still looking at options for overturning the Obama administration’s policy.”

63% back President’s contraception rule in Kaiser poll. NYT: ”While 8 in 10 Democrats said they supported requiring birth control coverage, only 4 in 10 Republicans did. Six in 10 people calling themselves independents voiced approval … Just over half of all Republicans ages 18 to 49 supported requiring contraceptive coverage, while only 33 percent of Republicans ages 50 and higher did so.”

GOP Train Wreck On Transportation Jobs Bill

House GOP leaders “don’t know what to do” to get a transportion jobs bill passed. Politico: ”They originally planned to have the bill completed by mid-February. Now, it won’t even be on the floor next week. Many Republicans involved say a stopgap measure to avert a shutdown of the nation’s infrastructure building apparatus on March 31 is likely. But there are only 12 legislative days left before current policy expires … Highway programs expire at the end of March, and if the House cannot come to terms with how it wants to extend the funding, states will no longer get reimbursed for their highway projects.”

Auto sales spike, further evidence of successful restructuring by Obama administration. Bloomberg: ”U.S. auto sales accelerated to the fastest pace in four years … GM deliveries rose 1.1 percent to 209,306 cars and light trucks, beating analysts’ estimates for a 4.8 percent decrease. Chrysler sales increased 40 percent to 133,521 and Ford Motor Co. climbed 14 percent to 178,644 … The improving economy may have blunted the impact of rising gasoline prices …”

Public colleges cut back on critical job training programs. NYT: ”Technical, engineering and health care expertise are among the few skills in huge demand even in today’s lackluster job market. They are also, unfortunately, some of the most expensive subjects to teach. As a result, state colleges in Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, Florida and Texas have eliminated entire engineering and computer science departments. At one community college in North Carolina — a state with a severe nursing shortage — nursing program applicants so outnumber available slots that there is a waiting list just to get on the waiting list … During and immediately after the last few recessions, states slashed financing for colleges. Then when the economy recovered, most states never fully restored the money …”

Breakfast Sides

NYT’s Paul Krugman slams GOP prez hopefuls for deficit hypocrisy: ”…all four significant Republican presidential candidates still standing are fiscal phonies. They issue apocalyptic warnings about the dangers of government debt and, in the name of deficit reduction, demand savage cuts in programs that protect the middle class and the poor. But then they propose squandering all the money thereby saved — and much, much more — on tax cuts for the rich.”

Koch brothers attempting “hostile takeover” of Cato Institute to expand their influence. W. Post: ”The lawsuit centers on the fate of the shares owned by [William] Niskanen, who died in October. The Koch brothers contend that they have the option to buy Niskanen’s shares, but no offer has been made to them, according to the lawsuit … Cato’s board chairman, Bob Levy, said in an interview that the Koch brothers, who have the power to appoint half of the board, have been choosing ‘Koch operatives’ for members, with an eye to push Cato toward support of the Republican Party.”

************

BOOK EXCERPT — The latest OurFuture.org installment from Richard Kirsch’s “Fighting for Our Health: ”…at crucial times when the law was hearing its death knells, our grassroots campaign helped it rise to its feet. My book begins with the most unlikely of those mortal moments: the election of a Republican to Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate.”

- Saturday night, watch a live reading of Dustin Lance Black’s play, “8,” based on the Proposition 8 trial, starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Martin Sheen, Christine Lahti, Jamie Lee Curtis, Matthew Morrison, Matt Bomer, Kevin Bacon, Jane Lynch, John C. Reilly, Campbell Brown, Chris Colfer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, George Takei, and more! It will be livestreamed at 10:45 PM EST / 7:45 PM PST.

- In Maryland, marriage advocates are optimistic about beating a referendum, the wedding industry is optimistic about increased business, and transgender activists and allies are optimistic about a proposed gender identity non-discrimination bill.

- A North Carolina panel has completed the official explanation of Amendment One, but neither side of the fight are particularly pleased with the result.

- The Illinois House Criminal Law Committee has advanced a bill that would add gender identityto the hate crimes law’s protected classes.

- Despite an effort by Republican lawmakers in Indiana, the specialty license plates supporting LGBT youth are here to stay.

- The University of Nebraska’s proposal to offer domestic partner insurance coverage is stymied by many questions from the Board of Regents.

- The Episcopal Bishop of Alaska has endorsed the Anchorage Equal Rights Initiative.

- WikiQueer has officially launched, seeking to be a hub for detailed information and history about the LGBT community.

- New York City has opened a full-service LGBT senior center.

- An Oxford graduate has returned his degree in protest of the university hosting a conference for a religious group that opposes LGBT rights promotes harmful ex-gay therapy.

- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe concluded his birthday celebrations by warning young people to shun Western values like homosexuality and greed.

- The University of the Philippines has elected the nation’s first transgender head of student government.

- Ebony Magazine highlights African-American transgender trailblazers.

- One mother explains what she learned from her transgender nanny:

Y’s transition changed me too. Watching Y’s struggle with weekly hormone therapy, decide when to come out to his family, friends, and employers, and select the appropriate public restroom, transformed my beliefs on gender identity. Even though I always supported the notion that people could be born into the wrong gender, I now view gender as more fluid — if there is a spectrum for sexuality, maybe there is also one with gender. I started making sure that I approach gender more sensitively with my own girls, allowing them to tell me who they are.

Will Wall Street Ever Face Justice? (NYT)
Phil Angelides argues the mortgage fraud task force could succeed given the right resources, but calling prosecution efforts thus far a success is like visiting a landfill and congratulating yourself for sweeping up some dust.

How Empires Fall (Including the American One) (TomDispatch)
Andy Kroll interviews Jonathan Schell, the author whose thesis that nonviolent resistance is the most powerful force in today’s society seemed totally ridiculous until protesters from Cairo to lower Manhattan went out and proved it for him.

Four Fiscal Phonies (NYT)
Paul Krugman writes that while the GOP candidates have issued dire warnings that America’s growing debt will trigger our own Greek crisis, their fiscal plans would leave our economy and finances in ruins without the intervention of Zeus Himself.

Romney can’t pay for his tax cuts by repealing Obamacare (WaPo)
Ezra Klein points out that Republicans’ plan to repeal health care reform to reduce the deficit doesn’t quite work since half of it was devoted to deficit reduction. Before reshaping fiscal policy, let’s see if we can master addition and subtraction.

Blunt, Rubio, And The Madness of Employer-Based Health Care (TNR)
The Senate celebrated Women’s History Month by tabling an amendment that would have let employers deny coverage for contraception (or anything else), but Tim Noah argues they shouldn’t be the gatekeepers of health care to begin with.

Check out “The 99 Percent Plan,” a new Roosevelt Institute/Salon essay series on the progressive vision for the economy.

Where the Jobs Are, the Training May Not Be (NYT)
Catherine Rampell notes that while nurses, engineers, and technicians have remained in high demand, cuts to public universities mean many Americans are hard-pressed to actually learn any of those trades. And you really, really don’t want them winging it.

A Brief History of the Education Culture Wars: On Santorum’s Legacy, the GOP and School Reform (The Nation)
Dana Goldstein charts the course of the Republican Party’s rapid swing from pushing hard for comprehensive federal education standards to arguing that the very existence of the public school system is a blight on the very soul of our fair nation.

A Civil Right to Unionize (NYT)
Richard Kahlenberg and Moshe Marvit argue the Civil Rights Act should include the right to form unions without being fired — a law that’s technically already on the books but carries as much weight as the warning to not remove your mattress tag.

Why the Rent Is Too Damn High (Slate)
Matthew Yglesias explains that now might be a good time to buy a home, but the fear that a house could turn into a lead anchor if the economy sinks again is driving more and more people toward a dwindling supply of rental properties.

Pirates of the Corporation (TAP)
Garrett Epps looks at a Supreme Court case in which a subsidiary of Shell Oil is arguing that while corporations enjoy many of the privileges of being a person, they’re exempt from petty human laws against things like torture and murder.

A powerful storm system tore through parts of the Midwest and South on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, leaving pockets of devastation across several states and marking the acceleration of another deadly tornado season. [New York Times]

President Barack Obama intends to press lawmakers today to quickly strip billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks, remarks that will come during his second energy-themed speech in two weeks aimed at blunting GOP attacks over gasoline prices. [The Hill]

The Environmental Protection Agency is acknowledging it will not complete first-time greenhouse gas standards for oil refineries in 2012. [The Hill]

Heavy rain and major flooding is continuing to cause misery for people in Australia, as floodwaters covering an area the size of France sweep across the state of New South Wales. [Sky News]

A late season storm is bringing heavy snows to California’s high country, and snow storms are also creating avalanche conditions in Colorado and forcing some schools to close in New York. [AP]

Denmark, followed by Israel, Sweden, Finland and the United States are the nations worldwide that provide the best conditions for clean technology startup companies, a recent ranking by the CleanTech Group stated. [YNetNews]

Royal Dutch Shell launched an extraordinary preemptive legal strike Wednesday against opponents of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean, filing suit against more than a dozen environmental organizations likely to challenge its plan for drilling exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea this summer. [LA Times]

A second wildfire in under a week has broken out in a western North Carolina national forest, but firefighters say both blazes are under control. [AP]

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) was nationally recognized today with the Organizational Leadership Award at the inaugural Climate Leadership Awards. [Sacramento Bee]

Transocean Ltd. may be hit with a $473 million bill for back taxes in the U.S. for 2008 and 2009, the offshore drilling giant said in a regulatory filing on Monday. [Law 360]

Settlement talks between BP and lawyers representing business owners and individuals affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill hit an impasse on Wednesday. [Houston Chronicle]

Rising gasoline prices already are causing consumers to buy more small cars, Ford sales analyst Erich Merkle said Wednesday. [Detroit Free Press]

TransCanada’s Keystone XL oil pipeline, a project backers including Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum say will create cheaper U.S. gasoline, instead risks raising prices as much as 20 cents a gallon in the Midwest, Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. [Bloomberg]

Al Gore discusses sustainable capitalism. [Huffington Post]

After a two-day hearing, a federal appeals court appeared inclined to uphold key parts of the Obama administration’s first-ever rules for reducing greenhouse gases, but it wasn’t clear whether the court would endorse the government’s entire approach. [WSJ]

Rick Santorum is touting the support of Sen. James Inhofe (R) even though the Oklahoma senator has not endorsed him. [The Hill]

A new NASA study revealed that the oldest and thickest Arctic sea ice is disappearing at a faster rate than the younger and thinner ice at the edges of the Arctic Ocean’s floating ice cap. [Science Daily]

A federal judge sentenced a former Massey Energy Co. security chief to three years in prisonWednesday for obstructing a criminal probe into the 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners in the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in four decades. [WSJ]

- The White House continues to stay mum about an executive order that would require federal contractors to protect against LGBT discrimination.

- Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D) is leading all the potential Republican candidates in her Senate race.

- The DC Trans Coalition argues the Metropolitan Police Department is not honoring its commitment to reduce anti-transgender violence in the city, and may be lying about it too.

- Equality Matters takes an in-depth look at the National Organization for Marriage’s failed “Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance.”

- The Family Research Council continues to eagerly defend ex-gay ministries, claiming they aren’t anti-gay.

- St. Louis Park will join three other Minnesota cities in opposing the state’s anti-equality amendment.

- Over 75,000 Change.org petitioners have called upon Union-Scioto School District in Chillicothe, Ohio to pass an anti-bullying policy that protects gays students like the 15-year-old whose assault was recently captured on video.

- Lady Gaga, flanked by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, launched her “Born This Way” Foundation yesterday to fight bullying.

- George Clooney sat down with The Advocate to discuss his support of marriage equality and how he will never deny rumors that he is gay because he just doesn’t care.

- A Washington couple who’ve been married nearly 70 years express their support for marriage equality for their two gay grandsons:

Click here to view the embedded video.

President Offers Theme of Nation Seeing a Comeback (NYT)
Bolstered by positive economic trends, President Obama is campaigning on an optimistic message of recovery and rebirth. To be fair, he can’t really go with “Wow, the last four years sucked. Can I get a do-over?”

The Two Cadillacs Fallacy (WaPo)
E.J. Dionne argues Romney and Santorum are both right-wing extremists who constantly say things that betray their regressive views. The difference is Santorum gets called on it while Romney gets a pat on the head for being a silly rich man.

After Many Tough Choices, the Choice to Quit (NYT)
Olympia Snowe is leaving the Senate after deciding there’s no room for a moderate in a broken Congress that wants to relitigate contraception debates that were settled 50 years ago, back when some of her colleagues were having midlife crises.

Explainer: Why Do We Need a Volcker Rule? (The Nation)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal looks at how the Volcker Rule serves as a modern-day Glass-Steagall, separating banks that are meant to be safe places to keep your money from freewheeling casinos that occasionally blow up the economy.

Occupy Vigilantes Write New Volcker Rule Script (Bloomberg)
Susan Antilla writes that the Occupiers’ Volcker Rule strategy is proving not only that reports of the movement’s death have been greatly exaggerated, but that they have a lot more savvy and policy expertise than many gave them credit for.

Check out “The 99 Percent Plan,” a new Roosevelt Institute/Salon essay series on the progressive vision for the economy.

Can Occupy pull off a general strike? (Salon)
After a quiet winter, the Occupy movement is hoping to make a splashy return by organizing a nationwide general strike on May Day. Sometimes the only way to prove you’re not a mob of unemployed hippies is to walk off your job and go protest.

Stop Starving Public Universities and Shrinking the Middle Class (Robert Reich)
Rick Santorum need not worry that sending everyone to college will breed a generation of monocle-wearing elitists. As Robert Reich notes, cuts to student aid and rising tuition costs are making it harder for anyone to afford an education.

Federal Reserve Chairman Sees Modest Growth (NYT)
Ben Bernanke spoke to the House yesterday and said the Fed plans to continue its stimulus efforts, and maybe Congress should too, wink wink, nudge nudge. Meanwhile, like a bored cat, Ron Paul was easily distracted by small, shiny objects.

A German History Lesson (TAP)
Robert Kuttner writes that German policymakers who expect Greece to accept endless economic punishment should remember that the Allies wrote off its debts after World War II and that post-World War I reparations led to, well, you know.

Wall Street Bonus Withdrawal Means Trading Aspen for Coupons(Bloomberg)
A single mom struggling to make ends meet while working two jobs might think she has it tough, but what about the 1% who have been forced to buy cheaper cereal and cut back on their summer vacations? If you prick them, do they not bleed?

MORNING MESSAGE: Bankers Should Worry About Subpoenas, Not Drum Circles

OurFuture.org’s Richard Eskow: ”JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently said that he felt safer in Lebanon than he did when Occupy marched past his house. If nothing else, it proves that Wall Street bankers haven’t gotten any better at risk management … [But] why are bankers at Chase and elsewhere more concerned about angry words than they are about subpoenas and fines? For one thing, the SEC has let JPMorgan Chase off the hook with a promise not to do wrong again – which it then has proceeded to do anyway.”

DeMarco Versus Everyone On Helping Homeowners

FHFA’s Edward DeMarco resists clamor to help struggling homeowners reduce principal. NPR: ”DeMarco and other critics of principal reduction say any policy that appears to pick and chose possible beneficiaries creates what’s known as a moral hazard … But HUD’s [Sean] Donovan says failing to reduce principal for qualifying homeowners creates its own moral hazard issues. Namely, every time a home goes into foreclosure, the neighboring homes decline in value. That means those neighboring homeowners end up holding the bag … John Dilorio is CEO of 1st Alliance Lending, a company that banks hire to refinance and reduce principal on some of their loans. Private banks see the value of principal reduction, he says, so why not Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?”

Bloomberg edit board slams DeMarco: ”DeMarco argues that debt forgiveness goes beyond his authority and would result in untenable losses for the mortgage giants. This is a curious position given that he is a presidential appointee and everyone from President Barack Obama to lawmakers to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has called on him to go ahead and do it. Economists and housing analysts say debt relief is essential to preventing a death spiral in which rising foreclosures and falling housing prices reinforce each other.”

Goldman Sachs exec under federal investigation. Bloomberg: ”A U.S. investigation of possible insider-trading by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. employees expanded to include a managing director whose name emerged at the trial of convicted hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, a person with knowledge of the probe said.
David Loeb, who works on Asia equity sales in New York and focuses on Taiwan, is a subject in the criminal investigation, said the person, who declined to be identified because the matter isn’t public. Loeb is the second Goldman Sachs employee said to be under federal scrutiny. Last month, Henry King, an analyst covering Taiwan, was identified as under investigation by the FBI, a person familiar with the case said.”

Romney Breaks Flip-Flop Speed Record

Romney takes both sides of GOP anti-contraception bill on same day. NYT: ”‘I’m not for the bill,’ Mr. Romney said, but then added, ‘the idea of presidential candidates getting into questions about contraception within a relationship between a man and a women, husband and wife, I’m not going there.’ … Mr. Romney and his aides quickly corrected his remarks, saying he strongly supports the Senate amendment, and had not properly understood the question.”

Anti-contraception bill may have driven Sen. Snowe to quit, reports Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift: ”…there was immediate speculation that Snowe’s decision to resign was driven in part by pressure from the GOP leadership to get her to vote with her party on Blunt. The fact that she gave only a few hours’ notice to McConnell and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, fueled the speculation that Snowe, long a thorn in her party’s side, had finally had enough. A spokesman for Snowe denied [it.]”

Sen. Maj. Leader Reid slams GOP for amendments slowing down transportation jobs bill. Roll Call: ”…a frustrated Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this evening set up a vote for Thursday on a Republican amendment that would allow companies and insurance providers to opt out of mandated birth control coverage for religious reasons … Reid said there would also likely be some votes on other unrelated amendments … such as a proposal to greenlight the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline and an amendment to delay and alter boiler pollution regulations. ;I’ve agreed to do these unrelated amendments,’ Reid said. ‘They are not productive, they are not germane, they are message amendments … but we will do those.’”

Presidential Challengers Embrace Extreme Union Busting

“Union Bashing Defines GOP Field” argues John Nichols: ”Like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Maine Gov. Paul LePage, [Romney, Santorum and Gingrich] are anti-labor extremists whose opposition to free trade unions goes to extremes not seen since Southern segregationists sought to bar unions because of their fear that white workers and people of color were being organized into labor organizations that would threaten Jim Crow.”

Richard D. Kahlenberg and and Moshe Z. Marvit propose strengthening labor law to make unionization a civil right, in NYT oped: ”The Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, has much stronger penalties and procedures than labor laws. Under our proposal, complaints about wrongful terminations for union organizing could still go through the National Labor Relations Board, which has expertise in this field. But the board would employ the procedures currently used by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which provide that after 180 days, a plaintiff can move his or her case from the administrative agency to federal court.”

Breakfast Sides

Americans trust Obama over Republicans on health care. USA Today: ”The survey, taken by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, shows that 58% of Americans trust Obama to make the right decisions on the 2010 health care law and on Medicare. By contrast, only 43% trust his closest Republican rivals on those issues.”

International tension may drive up gas prices. NYT: ” As summer approaches, demand for gasoline rises, typically pushing prices up around 20 cents a gallon. And gas prices could rise another 50 cents a gallon or more, analysts say, if the diplomatic and economic standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions escalates into military conflict or there is some other major supply disruption … any success in tightening sanctions on Iran could squeeze global oil supplies, pushing up prices and causing serious economic repercussions at home and abroad.”

Buffet Rule “would raise $73 billion per year, while affecting just 0.1 percent of taxpayers,” finds CAP.

Romney opposes new law ending bank subsidies for private student loans. ThinkProgress’ Travis Waldron: ”…Romney [decried] the ‘government takeover’ while saying he wished he could find ‘free money’ to help people with their student loans … The ‘government takeover’ of student loans, as Romney surely knows, isn’t really a government takeover at all. The private loan industry still exists; loan reform only takes banks out of the federal loan process.”

President’s re-election campaign demands Koch brothers reveal donors to their Tea Party group reports The Hill.

President to tout energy plan in NH today reports The Hill.

Continuing education programs seen as path to lowering unemployment. NYT: ”Even though nearly 13 million Americans are still out of work, many employers complain that they cannot find the right people to fill myriad job openings … Realizing this, many politicians, businesses and economic development officials are pressing schools with continuing-education programs to do their utmost to upgrade workers’ skills.

Conciliatory tone follows bipartisan meeting between President and GOP leaders. CBS: ”The speaker said Mr. Obama’s support for the Jobs Act, a package of House jobs bills aimed at helping small businesses, was ‘very clear.’ Mr. Obama’s ‘comments about trying to find some common ground on some of our bipartisan energy bills were also welcome signs,’ Boehner added … One clear area of disagreement between the president and Republicans remains the president’s decision not to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline…”

EU rules may punish fiscally distressed Spain, making matters worse. NYT: ”The Spanish case illustrates a design flaw in the euro rule book — fining a nation in financial trouble can only make matters worse. Even insisting on more austerity could drive Spain over the edge. Inaction, however, could threaten the credibility of the revised rule book when financial markets remain nervous.”

Bernanke lowers expectation of additional Fed action. Bloomberg: ”Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said elevated unemployment and subdued inflation mean interest rates are likely to stay low, without offering any sign that the economy needs an additional monetary boost. Bernanke, in testimony to lawmakers yesterday in Washington, described ‘positive developments’ in the job market while saying it’s still ‘far from normal.’ He said the inflationary impact of higher gasoline prices is likely to be temporary.”

One Mancession Later, Are Women Really Victors in the New Economy? (The Nation)
Many commentators were quick to declare women the winners of the “mancession.” So what did they win? As ND2.0 Editor Bryce Covert explains, a lot of crummy, dead-end jobs and a stagnant pay gap. Congrats?

Our Anti-Government Hypocrisy (TAP)
Harold Meyerson notes a survey that shows Americans oppose business regulations, except those that protect their health and safety and rein in powerful industries. But aside from all the existing ones and all the ones they want to add, total opposition.

What a difference a decade makes on income inequality (Maddow Blog)
Steve Benen points out that long ago, in the bygone age of 2002, Republicans like Rick Santorum were discussing the problem of growing income inequality without putting money in the swear jar for offending the delicate ears of the rich.

Mortgage Fraud Task Force Skeptics Wait For Strong Leader, Swift Action(HuffPo)
Having Eric Schneiderman head the new mortgage fraud task force won over many progressives, but critics like Roosevelt Institute Fellow Matt Stoller prefer to withhold their endorsement until it actually does something. Call it the Pet Rock Standard.

Pressure Grows on Fannie and Freddie to Cut Principal on Loans (NYT)
California AG Kamala Harris has asked Fannie and Freddie to halt foreclosures in her state until they can offer homeowners a genuine alternative. FHFA Director Edward “Hey, I Don’t Even Listen to the President” DeMarco will probably not be persuaded.

Check out “The 99 Percent Plan,” a new Roosevelt Institute/Salon essay series on the progressive vision for the economy.

For the Costliest Homes, Foreclosure Comes Slowly (WSJ)
If underwater borrowers don’t want to be kicked out of their homes, there’s a trick to getting banks off their backs: They just need to be wealthy and have phenomenally expensive mortgages the banks would prefer to keep on their books.

Gas in the US Elections (Truthout)
Dean Baker writes that the GOP hopes to pull the classic political trick of pinning blame for high gas prices on the president, despite the mildly inconvenient facts that (a) he can’t really be held responsible for them and (b) Republican policies wouldn’t help.

Growing Number Of Americans Can’t Afford Food, Study Finds (HuffPo)
There are going to be a lot of growling stomachs in those quiet rooms where we’re supposed to discuss inequality, as a new report shows the number of Americans who struggled to feed their families rose to 18.6 percent even as unemployment fell.

Magic Mountain (New Yorker)
Nick Paumgarten reports from inside the weird world of Davos, filled with important people conducting high-minded debates about the nature of the economy, discussion panels no one attends, pockets of protest, and a lot of espresso bars.

The Economic Impact of Leap Day (Slate)
Matthew Yglesias writes that having one extra day in the year doesn’t really make the economy 1/366th awesomer, so its main significance will continue to be for 16-year-olds who are dying to celebrate their fourth birthday.