Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Obama Commends Officials Investigating Boston Bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Read Miranda Rights - Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was read his Miranda Rights during an initial proceeding at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where the suspect is being treated for gunshot wounds, according to a transcript of the proceedings.
 
In the same proceedings before Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler, Tsarnaev was also informed of the charges against him and maximum penalties.

Tsarnaev responded "no" when asked if he could afford a lawyer. Judge Bowler then provisionally appointed public defender William Fick to represent him.

At the end of the proceedings, custody of Tsarnaev was transferred from the FBI to the U.S. Marshals Service. The defendant agreed to a probate cause hearing scheduled for May 30 at 10 a.m.

President Obama on Monday spoke to FBI Special Agent Richard Deslauriers and Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, thanking them and other officials for their work investigating the Boston Marathon bombings.  TPM.com has more here. 
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Charging the Boston Bombing Suspect - The Washington Post has a good editorial today you can read in full here.

An excerpt: We have supported the use of military detention for foreign terrorism suspects captured abroad. But in Mr. Tsarnaev’s case, such a transfer would have been illegal. As Benjamin Wittes of the Brookings Institution has pointed out, Congress has authorized military detention only for militants who are “part of” or “substantially” supporting al-Qaeda or the Taliban. No evidence has surfaced that Mr. Tsarnaev had such connections; even if he did, his status as a U.S. citizen arrested in the United States means that his detention by the military would be subject to challenge on constitutional grounds.

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Obama Invites All Women Senators to Dinner - President Barack Obama on Tuesday evening will host all female senators for dinner at the White House.
 
Shortly after word of the dinner emerged from the White House on Monday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) took to Twitter to applaud Obama for hosting the women.

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Democrats Outraise Republicans in First Quarter - Congressional Democrats are leveraging their online fundraising edge and 2012 campaign wins to generate big money early in the 2014 election cycle.

Both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outraised their GOP counterparts by wide margins in the first three months of 2013.

The DSCC nearly doubled the National Republican Senatorial Committee in fundraising, bringing in $13.7 million to the NRSC’s $6.9 million.

The DCCC outraised the National Republican Congressional Committee $22.6 million to $17.5 million. Both Democratic committees also have cash-on-hand advantages.  TheHill.com has more here.

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Rangel Sues Boehner To Overturn Censure - Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is suing House Speaker John Boehner and six other lawmakers to overturn his censure on ethics charges, arguing that members of the House Ethics Committee withheld evidence that could’ve cleared his name.  Politico.com has more here.

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Sequester Cuts Lead To Air Traffic Controller Furloughs - Dire predictions to the contrary, the furlough of FAA air traffic controllers (ATC) that began on Sunday hasn’t led to massive delays and cancelations. Although there have been sporadic issues since then, it’s safe to say the nation’s air transportation system hasn’t come to a grinding halt and that the sky most definitely hasn’t fallen.

“There are a lot of factors that go into creating delays so pinning it on one thing is difficult,” said Mark Duell, vice president of operations for FlightAware.com. “If there’s better staffing or the weather is good or there are fewer flights overall, everything would be fine. But when two or three of those are compromised, that’s when you get problems.”  NBC News has more here.

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