NATIONAL

“Preliminary statistics released today by the FBI show that 51 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2014. This is an increase of almost 89 percent when compared to the 27 officers killed in 2013.” – FBI

“It started as a traffic stop and ended in a hail of gunfire. Now two police officers in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, are dead, four suspects are facing charges and a community is mourning.” – CNN

“A Subway employee cheering the brutal murder of two Mississippi cops has brought her company under fire. The woman, going by the name ‘Sierra C-Babi Mccurdy’ on Facebook, gleefully announced that the cold-blooded killings could launch another blaze of riots, looting, and property damage in Hattiesburg.” – Breitbart

“Personally, I’m waiting on pins and needles for the Halperin interview with Elizabeth Warren where he asks her to perform a rain dance for drought stricken California and to comment on the Iran negotiations deal in fluent Cherokee.” – Hot Air

“Democrats are chiding Republican leaders in Congress as standing in the way of improvements to ObamaCare that enjoy bipartisan support.” – The Hill

“The foundation’s acknowledgement means precise totals for government grants to the charity for the last three years of Clinton’s four-year tenure as secretary of state have still not been publicly disclosed. All U.S. charities have to separately disclose each year how much they get in government funding, both domestic and foreign.” – Trust.org

“Saudi Arabia has announced that its new monarch, King Salman, will not attend meetings at the White House with President Obama or a summit of Arab leaders at Camp David.” – Power Line

“A high-ranking communist official who defected to the United States in the 1970s now says the Soviet KGB was behind the tidal wave of ‘liberation theology’ that swept through Catholic countries in Latin America before the opposition of Pope John Paul II effectively ended the movement.” – New American

“This is the result of a complete absence of teaching current events in our schools and teaching without context or candor. We have eviscerated our children’s education and unconsciously treat them as people we hate, denying them any excellence or agility of mind.” – Richard Dreyfuss/PJ Media

“A death penalty opponent made famous in the 1995 movie ‘Dead Man Walking’ says Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev expressed genuine sorrow for the victims of the attacks. Sister Helen Prejean testified Monday that she began meeting with Tsarnaev in early March at the request of his defense team.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

LOUISIANA

“Louisiana voters will elect a new governor in about five months, and the race is shaping up among those four candidates, who will spend the summer attending festivals, crawfish boils and other gatherings across the state.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“The bitter feud over the Common Core education standards has grown increasingly personal. Critics of the standards are raising conflict-of-interest allegations against state education leaders and seeking new ethics restrictions for them.” – WWL-TV

“A bill in the Legislature is aimed at returning, against the will of charter operators, some once-failing Recovery School District schools to the control of the Orleans Parish School Board. Most of the charters are in Orleans, although the state-administered RSD also has taken over failing schools beyond the Crescent City, such as in Baton Rouge.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Illinois’s high court on Friday (May 8) struck down cuts meant to erase the state’s $105 billion pension liability, a highly anticipated decision in a case followed by legal scholars and lawmakers across the country, where unfunded state and local pension promises add up to more than $1 trillion. The novel argument Illinois officials used in defense of the cuts was of particular interest to officials in places like Louisiana, where pension funds eat a big share of the budget, and New Orleans, where the firefighter pension fund is on the brink of ruin.” – NOLA.com

“A lot of the solutions will take guts. But legislators are finding they no longer have the luxury of easy solutions — so if anything they do is likely to cause heartburn, they might as well show the guts to do the job right. In fact, voters are so tired of the annual bloodlettings that they may even reward lawmakers who do the right surgery for lasting health.” – Quin Hillyer/Baton Rouge Advocate

“Acadiana schools are experiencing a critical shortage of teachers—as many veteran educators walk away from the profession. KATC crunched the numbers and found that nearly 500 teachers across Acadiana resigned or retired this school year alone.” – KATC

“State Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, has put aside her plan to let Louisiana parishes enact their own tobacco tax, but it doesn’t mean that particular fiscal fight is over.” – NOLA.com

“The Louisiana House of Representatives had last Thursday what some are calling ‘the single largest tax increase day‘ in state history. Lawmakers raised two-thirds of their $1 billion target before adjourning for the week.” – Jim Beam/Lake Charles American Press

“The man accused of killing two men along a Mardi Gras parade route will appear in court on Monday.” – Fox 8 Live

“Developers looking to cash in on a housing crunch created in the wake of industrial expansions in the chemical corridor have been eyeing Gonzales, with new subdivisions on the way for this Ascension Parish east bank city of about 9,800 residents.” – Baton Rouge Advocate