Helpful advice for Republican presidential hopefuls on how to distinguish themselves between now and next year’s primaries.

Which came first? Are the higher engineering salaries due to the preponderance of men in the field or are the lower salaries for fields such as Social Work and Education due to the preponderance of women in the field? Contrary to the beliefs of some people, jobs in Social Work fields and Education are not easy nor are they stress free.

Provisions slated to expire include: the “roving wiretap provision,” which permits government to obtain intelligence surveillance orders without identifying the person or the facility being tapped (Section 206 of the Act); the “Lone Wolf” provision, which permits intelligence agencies to survey non-US persons not affiliated with a foreign organization (Section 6001 of the Act); and Section 215, which grants government authorization to obtain “any tangible thing” relevant to a terrorism investigation, even if there is no evidence the “thing” pertains to the terrorist or terrorist activity under investigation.

The government appears to hope three time’s a charm. The last two times they subpoenaed James Risen in the case of Jeffrey Sterling, Judge Leonie Brinkema quashed the subpoena. But they’re trying again, this time to get him to testify at Sterling’s trial.

The special election in NY-26, which has been dominated by headlines about the Paul Ryan budget to end Medicare, will end at 9pm ET tonight. Jane Corwin isn’t waiting to take precautions: she’s already got herself a court order barring certification of a winner.

In the interest of “common ground,” we could see a proposal like increasing cost sharing in Medicare. It would be astounding for Democrats to do so, coming off of a successful effort to blame Republicans for… increasing cost sharing in Medicare, by ending the program and giving seniors a too-small coupon to purchase health insurance.

Now, ten years after 9/11, with Osama bin Laden dead, in a broad bipartisan vote, the United States Senate moved forward with another extension of the “temporary” Patriot Act. The vote was 74-8. Both the support and the very limited opposition to this extension were near-even slits along party lines; true bipartisan efforts.

Eric Cantor is trending on Twitter right now, and it’s for a comment he made about the tornado that killed at least 116 people in Joplin, Missouri. Cantor, merely following established conservative ideology, made the statement that no emergency relief for Joplin would pass the House without corresponding cuts elsewhere.

The DNC is focused on the GM and Chrysler headlines, not so much the suppliers, where the bulk of the jobs are. More importantly, the Democrats as a whole don’t seem to be cataloging the many examples where down-ticket Republicans are claiming credit for government investments in new technology that are just now paying off in jobs.

Elizabeth Warren faces a House Financial Services Subcommittee today. The hearing is called “Who’s Watching the Watchmen? Oversight of the Consumer Protection Bureau.” It’s chaired by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), one of the more ideological conservatives in Congress, who has been at the forefront of the move to gut the CFPB before it gets off the ground. And in his opening remarks today, he basically accused Warren of lying.