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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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national lead
Report: IRS singled out conservatives beyond the tea party
Distrust of big government writ large, and of the Internal Revenue Service more specifically, are cornerstones of the tea party ethos. Now, it looks like the IRS went and proved their point for them.
President Obama said he didn't know the IRS was singling-out conservative groups until the news broke.
"I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this," Obama said Monday. "If you've got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and non-partisan way, then that is outrageous... I've got no patience with it, I will not tolerate it, and I will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this."
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pop lead
'Doonesbury' creator launches show on Amazon
"Alpha House," a comedy about four Republican senators sharing a Capitol Hill townhouse, is one of 14 online pilots produced by Amazon studios. Yes, the same Amazon where you bought that last-minute Mother's Day gift. The show boasts a cast television network executives dream about: John Goodman, Mark Consuelos, cameos with Bill Murray and Stephen Colbert.
The show's creator is a familiar name, too - Garry Trudeau, better known as the creator of comic strip "Doonesbury." Trudeau says the new Amazon venture was a way to bring his signature Washington satire to the small screen on a fast track.
"They were trying to put together a slate of pilots quickly. They wanted to get going. And this was ready to go," said Trudeau.
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money lead
Sen. Franken wants new government panel to grade Wall Street
Credit agencies that rate Wall Street's big banks were blamed for playing a pivotal role in the financial meltdown, but those agencies are still being paid for their work by the very banks they rate. That was one of the root causes of the financial crisis of 2008, according to a bipartisan Senate subcommittee that investigated the crash.
Senator Al Franken, D-Minnesota, wants to stop what he calls this "pay to play" rating system. He is meeting with the Security and Exchange Commission Tuesday to discuss credit rating reform, and the problems with "rate shopping."
"Let's say an investment bank created a financial product, say, subprime mortgage-backed securities and they wanted to get a rating on that. So, it would go shop its two different credit rating agencies and make sure that they got a AAA, whoever they picked would give them a AAA," said Franken. "It was sometimes unspoken, but the credit rating agencies knew that they wouldn't get the next gig if they didn't give a AAA."
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national lead
Gosnell trial evidence: You can't unsee those photos
Doctor Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of babies born alive in his abortion clinic. He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of a woman who came to him for an abortion, 21 counts of aborting the unborn 24 weeks or older, the cutoff in Pennsylvania, and 211 counts of violation of informed consent.
A warning to readers that the details of this story are gruesome.
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pop lead
Web exclusive: Cartooning with 'Doonesbury' creator Garry Trudeau
Watch CNN's Jake Tapper and Garry Trudeau draw memorable "Doonesbury" and other cartoon characters in the video above.
Tapper draws three characters from his college comic strip "Static Cing" for Trudeau. The CNN anchor named his main character "Garry," for his idol at the time - Garry Trudeau.
And Trudeau draws for Tapper the character that started it all - football player "B.D." Trudeau said "B.D." started as a one-off sports script called "Bull Tales."
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