As other Attorneys General took the lead in efforts to fight foreclosure fraud, with lawsuits from Delaware’s Beau Biden, Massachusetts’ Martha Coakley and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, we hadn’t heard as much from New York’s Eric Schneiderman lately. But he’s back in the news, teaming with the federal Inspector General for the FHFA on an investigation.

As part of the omnibus spending bill, the federal government will delay enforcement of new regulations for increased energy efficiency in light bulbs. Republicans claim that this delay, achieved through blocking Energy Department funding for enforcement through Fiscal Year 2012, will “save” the incandescent light bulb, but in reality incandescent bulbs were never banned. And light bulb manufacturers put a lot of money and effort into meeting the standard, so they oppose the delay altogether.

A unique pressure campaign has been playing out in Iowa, where the group Occupy Des Moines and other progressive groups briefly took over both the Obama for America and the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters, just as the media spotlight descends on the city two weeks before the caucuses.

The Supreme Court has officially set the schedule for oral arguments regarding the Affordable Care Act. Arguments will be heard over three days from March 26th to March 28th, 2012, with separate issues considered on each day.

The recess appointment fight nominally only concerns Richard Cordray, the nominee to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans want to block his confirmation because they stop the agency from gaining regulatory powers over non-bank financial institutions if they remain without a director. But a number of other nominees are caught in the crossfire of this fight, in particular nominees to lead other key financial industry NLRB regulators.

The national climate is quickly turning against Newt Gingrich. Two new national polls indicate Gingrich’s lead has slipped noticeably since earlier this month. A new CNN/ORC poll finds Gingrich went from a 4 point lead over Mitt Romney to being tied. Gallup shows Gingrich slipping a point a day.

The war ended in Iraq last night, and within moments, it seems, chaos has reigned in the Iraqi Parliament. But while this is almost sure to be used as evidence that the military should never have left Iraq, the events here would have played out at some point, in absence of perpetual occupation.

Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein is calling for a total popular boycott on political donations. He believes that the problem with Washington is that we have an inherent stalemate that will not be solved by an election and only a boycott by campaign donors will magically make all members of Congress agree to the “grand bargain” Pearlstein wants.

Regarding the payroll tax cut deal, apparently the plan is for a straight up-or-down vote tonight on the measure. House Speaker John Boehner promised that the vote would fail. That creates another stalemate, and Boehner misled his Senate GOP colleagues who already voted for the Senate bill.

My husband played me about a 3 minute video of Mr. Limbaugh complaining that children expect to be fed during the summer. I kid you not. The man is complaining about feeding needy children.