Tom Tishken

Tourists have long flocked to Egypt to see the pyramids, take a trip up the majestic Nile or relax on one of its many sun-kissed beaches. But, in a potentially damaging blow to its economy, Egypt has now been ranked below countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Chad for "safety and security" in an influential report on tourism by the World Economic Forum. "We have over 400 boats on the Nile, there is still 20 to 25 percent occupancy on some of the most popular boats, but others are just sitting and not operating," said Emile Asaad, manager of a travel agency in Luxor. "We don't know how the future looks." - Tom Tishken

A newly deciphered Egyptian text, dating back 1,200 years, tells the crucifixion story of Jesus with some plot twists that have never been seen before. Written in the Coptic language, the text tells of Pontius Pilate, the judge who authorized Jesus' crucifixion, having dinner with Jesus before his crucifixion and offering to sacrifice his own son in the place of Jesus. It also states that Judas used a kiss to betray Jesus because Jesus had the ability to change shape and puts the day of his arrest on Tuesday rather than Thursday, contravening the Easter timeline. - Tom Tishken

Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll (R) resigned Wednesday after being questioned by state police investigating an Internet cafe company whose owner has been charged with racketeering. Carroll owned a public relations firm that represented Allied Veterans of the World, a business accused of making $290 million from supplying illegal gambling software and falsely claiming the proceeds would benefit a veterans group. Only one percent of the money went to veterans. - Tom Tishken

Daniel Ellsberg: Today, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, an organization that I co-founded and of which I'm on the board, has published an audio recording of Bradley Manning's speech to a military court from two weeks ago, in which he gives his reasons and motivations behind leaking over 700,000 government documents to WikiLeaks. Whoever made this recording, and I don't know who the person is, has done the American public a great service. This marks the first time the American public can hear Bradley Manning, in his own voice explain what he did and how he did it. - Tom Tishken

The FBI and other U.S. agencies said on Tuesday they were investigating a website that posted financial and personal information about first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other government figures as well as celebrities including singers Beyonce and Jay-Z. It was unclear how much of the data, which first appeared on the website www.exposed.su on Monday, was accurate or who posted it. The site listed social security numbers, telephone numbers, addresses and credit reports purportedly belonging to 18 prominent Americans. - Tom Tishken

Ezra Klein: Here is Paul Ryan's path to a balanced budget in three sentences: He cuts deep into spending on health care for the poor and some combination of education, infrastructure, research, public-safety, and low-income programs. The Affordable Care Act's Medicare cuts remain, but the military is spared, as is Social Security. There's a vague individual tax reform plan that leaves only two tax brackets -- 10 percent and 25 percent -- and will require either huge, deficit-busting tax cuts or increasing taxes on poor and middle-class households, as well as a vague corporate tax reform plan that lowers the rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. - Tom Tishken

Arizona state officials have won a significant legal battle in a long-running saga over a controversial Tucson schools ethnic-studies program, with a federal judge ruling that a law designed to ban it is constitutional. Authorities instrumental in the law's passage said Monday that they feel vindicated in their efforts to ban what they deemed to be racially divisive courses in public schools. The challenge to the new state law was initially launched in 2010 by teachers of the Tucson Unified School DistrictÂÂ's Mexican-American studies program, which offered a slate of history, government and literature classes at four high schools. - Tom Tishken

White smoke is billowing from the Sistine Chapel chimney in St. Peter's Square, indicating a new pope has been chosen. It's not yet clear who the new pope is. But he is expected to appear on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica within the hour before many faithful waiting to witness the first new pontiff in eight years. - Tom Tishken

The first budget from Senate Democrats in four years includes nearly $1 trillion in new taxes but would not balance the budget. The blueprint unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Tuesday to her Democratic colleagues would also turn off the next nine years of the sequester and replace those spending cuts with a 50-50 mix of tax increases and spending cuts. The budget would dedicate $100 billion to economic stimulus in the form of infrastructure spending and job training. The $975 billion in spending cuts include $240 billion in savings from the end of the Afghanistan war and $242 billion in reduced interest payments, according to a source. - Tom Tishken

The Senate Judiciary Committee backed President Barack Obama's call to require criminal background checks for all gun buyers Tuesday on a party-line vote of 10-8, sending the measure to the full Senate. Federally registered firearm dealers are now required to run background checks on buyers. But about 40 percent of sales are made by private dealers who do not have such an obligation. - Tom Tishken

A judge Monday vacated the 124-year sentence received by rapist Andrew Luster in 2003 and ordered a hearing to determine a new sentence. Luster, the great-grandson of cosmetics giant Max Factor, was convicted on 86 rape and drug charges after a jury viewed videotapes he made of himself engaging in sex with three women rendered unconscious by the date rape drug GHB. Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz refused to grant Luster a new trial but ruled his unusually long sentence needed to be reconsidered. - Tom Tishken

Legal and medical experts are questioning the decision of a Colorado judge to allow James Holmes, the suspected gunman in the Aurora movie theater shooting, to be tested with a "truth serum" should he plead not guilty by reason of insanity. The idea would be that such a "narcoanalytic interview" could confirm whether he was legally insane when he allegedly embarked on his shooting spree on July 20, 2012. The precise drug that would be used has not been released, other than a statement that it would be "medically appropriate," but it would most likely be a short-acting barbiturate such as sodium amytal. - Tom Tishken

TPM: When he unveils his budget plan this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) will complete a 720-degree flip on President Barack Obama's cuts to Medicare providers in the Affordable Care Act. As he revealed on Fox News Sunday, Ryan's upcoming budget will sustain the cuts. "We end the raid and we apply those savings to Medicare to make Medicare more solvent and extend the solvency of the Medicare trust fund," he said. Ryan ran for vice president last year against Obama's cuts to Medicare, which don't target beneficiaries but instead lower reimbursements for hospitals and private insurance companies under Medicare Advantage. - Tom Tishken

South Korea's government scoffed at North Korea's announcement Monday that it had nullified the 1953 Korean War armistice, saying such unilateral action is prohibited under the terms of the cease-fire. It suggested the North's belligerence is a tactic it has used in past times of tension to build support among its own people. "If they launch a provocation, we will respond more strongly and make sure that they suffer far more," said Kim Min-seok, spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry. - Tom Tishken

Five American soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan's Kandahar province Monday. Officials said that the crash, which happened around 11 p.m., was under investigation, but that "there was no enemy activity in the area at the time." On the same day, an Afghan police officer in eastern Afghanistan opened fire with a gun mounted on the back of a truck, killing two members of U.S. special operations forces and wounded 10 others. - Tom Tishken

Last year, Cowan's Auctions put up a lot of 282 Vietnam War-era Zippo lighters featuring personalized and anonymous engravings chosen by U.S. soldiers, sailors, and airmen during deployment. The collection was compiled by American artist Bradford Edwards over several years in the 1990s, on-site in Vietnam. Edwards was careful not to target specific sentiments or designs in the engravings, but simply to seek out authenticity and let the objects speak for themselves. As such, the lighters capture a wide range of feelings and opinions about the war, from the obscenity-laden anti-army mottoes of the unwilling draftees, to the simple love notes of the homesick, to the 8 Special Forces emblazoned lighters, conspicuously absent of any further embellishment. - Tom Tishken

A Maryland woman was pulled over on Interstate 95 in Laurel last week, but not for speeding. She was ticketed for driving too slow -- 63 mph in a 65 mph zone. "I thought, 'Oh my God, you've got to be kidding me,'" the woman told NBC Washington. She has filed a complaint with Maryland State Police and plans to fight the ticket. - Tom Tishken

Black smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel Tuesday night, indicating that cardinals gathered at the Vatican to elect a new pope had not chosen one in the first ballot of their conclave. The start of the secret election got underway earlier in the day, as the heavy wooden doors to the chapel swung closed on the 115 Roman Catholic cardinals charged with selecting the next pontiff.The next round of voting will begin Wednesday morning. - Tom Tishken

The Democrat-controlled Colorado legislature passed a bill to legalize gay civil unions and sent it to Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), who is expected to sign it. The bill passed 39-26 with all Democrats and two Republicans voting in favor. Voters in the state approved a gay marriage ban seven years ago, making civil unions the only option available at present. "I ask for a 'yes' vote for love, a 'yes' vote for family, and a 'yes' vote for equal protection," said House Speaker Mark Ferrandino (D), the first openly gay male legislator in the state's history. - Tom Tishken

A five-year-old boy in Cambridge, Mass., fell asleep on his school bus on the way to an after-school program last week and wasn't found for three hours until his mother arrived to pick him up. "My child should never fear anything, at five years old, and wake up and feel like he's been abandoned," said the boy's mother, Tara Dendy. "When I arrived they informed me he wasn't there. And my heart dropped." - Tom Tishken

Rush Limbaugh spoke up for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his anti-drone filibuster on his radio show, suggesting less support among the Republican rank and file for neocon hawks, writes Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic. "The neocons are paranoid," Limbaugh said. "The neocons are paranoid because Rand Paul comes from his father's gene pool. This isolationist wing is worried about maybe there's something more going on here than simply opposing drone strikes. There's all kinds of ramifications. Well, they might think he's a kook, but they're worried that he's a kook that nobody thinks is a kook, and so they'll follow him. He's a stealth kook. It's their thinking. I don't think this." - Tom Tishken

Residents of the Falkland Islands voted almost unanimously to stay under British rule in a referendum aimed at winning global sympathy as Argentina intensifies its sovereignty claim, results showed on Monday. The official count showed 99.8 percent of islanders voted in favor of remaining a British Overseas Territory in the two-day referendum, which was rejected by Argentina as a meaningless publicity stunt. Only three "no" votes were cast. - Tom Tishken

A 68-year-old world-renowned physicist meets a gorgeous Czech bikini model online through a dating site. They plan their perfect life together. But first, she asks, would he be so kind as to deliver a suitcase to her after picking it up in La Paz, Bolivia? The New York Times tells the amazing story of the physicist Paul Frampton and an online paramour he thought was Denise Milani. - Tom Tishken

Henry Wu, Los Angeles Times: A smiling Pope Benedict XVI had just wrapped up an official visit to Portugal in May 2010, during which he praised Catholic organizations striving to protect families based on "the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman." But barely 72 hours after the pontiff flew home, the president of Portugal declared that he would sign a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. With Spain having granted such rights five years earlier, the move turned the entire Iberian Peninsula, historically a Catholic stronghold, into an unlikely hitching post for homosexuals. - Tom Tishken

A Long Island mother of three, Elizabeth Cioffi-Petrakis, 39, won an appeal overturning a premarital agreement with her millionaire husband and may now be entitled to half of her ex's worth when their divorce becomes final. "This is unprecedented in the family law world," celebrity divorce lawyer Vikki Ziegler said. "This is a landmark decision that will likely be litigated a great deal in the future in similar cases for those who feel their pre-nups are unconscionable." - Tom Tishken

The carcasses of more than 2,800 dead pigs have floated into Shanghai from villages upriver, sparking health fears about water safety. The swollen and rotting corpses, some with their internal organs visible, have been showing up since Friday. Though authorities said the financial center's drinking water is safe, some residents are dubious. "Well, since there supposedly is no problem in drinking this water, please forward this message, if you agree, to ask Shanghai's party secretary, mayor and water authority leaders if they will be the first ones to drink this meat soup?" lawyer Gan Yuanchun said on his microblog. - Tom Tishken