SPB News for Thursday

Minnesota Voters: It's Over, Norm

Libertarians: GOP took tea movement

McClellan: Bush insiders plan to 'spin an alternative reality'

L.A. school board votes to lay off 5,400

UBS to cut 7,500 jobs after loss

Gingrich eyeing 2012 White House run

Secretary Clinton’s Digital Town Hall for Summit of the Americas
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be holding a digital town hall from the Dominican Republic on Friday in anticipation of the Fifth Summit of the Americas.
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Your Daily Digby:
Want to know what your CEO made last year? The Executive Paywatch site offers three user-friendly ways to find out. And if you want to have a little fun at the CEO’s expense, play the “Boot The CEO” game and kick the money out of the greedy CEO’s hands.

Release of the President and Vice President’s Tax Returns
As another demonstration of the President’s commitment to openness and transparency, the White House releases the President and Vice President’s tax returns.
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Guantanamo detainee claims abuse An inmate in the US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has told Al Jazeera that he has been beaten while in custody and had tear gas used on him after refusing to leave his cell. Mohammad al-Qurani, a Chadian national, said in a phone call to Al Jazeera that the alleged ill-treatment "started about 20 days" before Barack Obama became US president and "since then I've been subjected to it almost every day". "Since Obama took charge he has not shown us that anything will change," he said.

Report: U.N. spent U.S. funds on shoddy projects Two United Nations agencies spent millions in U.S. money on substandard Afghanistan construction projects, including a central bank without electricity and a bridge at risk of "life threatening" collapse, according to an investigation by U.S. federal agents. The U.N. ran a "quick impact" infrastructure program from 2003 to 2006 under a $25 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The U.N. delivered shoddy work, diverted money to other countries and then stonewalled U.S. efforts to figure out what happened, according to a report by USAID's inspector general obtained by USA TODAY under the Freedom of Information Act.

Iraq war: Gordon Brown aims to delay inquiry report until after election Gordon Brown will announce by the autumn a "long" inquiry into the Iraq war, indicating that the potentially embarrassing report will be delayed until well after the general election expected next year. Ministers have decided that the inquiry should be wide-ranging, possibly dating back to Margaret Thatcher's tacit support for [CIA asset] Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Nigeria to prosecute officials in KBR bribery case Nigeria's Justice Minister said on Thursday it will prosecute any Nigerian official found to have taken bribes from former Halliburton unit KBR in a decade-long scheme to secure $6 billion (4 billion pounds) in contracts. KBR, the former engineering subsidiary of Halliburton, pleaded guilty in February to charges it paid $180 million in bribes to Nigerian officials.

CIA recruiting quietly at UNM The Central Intelligence Agency set up behind closed doors at the University of New Mexico Tuesday to make its recruiting pitch as the spring semester moves toward graduation. The element of secrecy behind the gathering kept KRQE News 13 from getting any closer than the hallway outside. The student-run Inspire Anderson Marketing from the Anderson School of Management hosted the recruiting event.