NATIONAL

“Who could honestly say Hillary Clinton can be trusted in the White House? We already know from her husband’s time in office that the Clintons offer a Third World kleptocracy disguised as representative democracy, but in the time since they left the presidency, “dead broke,” there is little disguise to the kleptocracy. The Clintons are bought and paid for by some of the world’s worst actors — Middle Eastern petrotyrants, Ukrainian oligarchs, Putin stooges, African warlords and George Stephanopoulos, to name a few.” – Scott McKay/American Spectator

“The economy got off to an even weaker start this year than first thought, the government reported Friday, as economic activity contracted amid a disappointing trade picture and continued caution on spending by businesses and consumers alike. The 0.7 percent decline in economic output in the first quarter of 2015 was a reversal of the initial 0.2 percent advance for the period reported last month by the Commerce Department.” – NY Times

“Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been indicted on federal charges alleging he agreed to pay $3.5 million in apparent hush money to a longtime acquaintance, then lied to the FBI when asked about suspicious cash withdrawals from several banks, federal prosecutors said.” – Chicago Tribune

“In a 1972 essay, presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) opined that men fantasized about women being abused. He also claimed that women fantasized about being gang raped.” – MRCTV

“But the editorial’s biggest howler is that workers would be protected from job loss by ‘higher labor productivity.’ That means less work is needed to produce the same output—which translates into either fewer workers or fewer hours for the same number of workers. If an employee with a machine produces as much as two employees used to, that means labor productivity has doubled. It also means one job has been obviated. Labor unions insist on burdensome work rules because the inefficiencies they impose force employers to keep more union members on the payroll than they otherwise would need to.” – James Taranto/WSJ

“This week, the International Business Times reported that then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved a huge spike in arms sales to repressive countries that donated to the Clinton Foundation, and that weapons contractors paid Bill Clinton huge sums for speeches at around the same time the State Department was approving their arms deals. Slate noted that ‘the IBT piece doesn’t reveal any smoking-gun evidence of a corrupt quid-pro-quo transaction.'” – Jonah Goldberg/National Review

“He’s right: laughing at Rick Santorum, as much as Rick Santorum sometimes deserves to be laughed at, is merely a palliative. We sneer and reaffirm our own urbane sense of superiority without ever bothering to explore why Santorum has appeal in the first place.” – Matt Purple/Rare

“The Saudis now openly boast that their strategy to let oil prices collapse was an attempt to kill U.S. shale production. Citing the nearly 60% drop in the U.S. oil rig count since October and the slowing of U.S. oil production, they are claiming a brilliant triumph. But rather than kill the U.S. shale revolution, the Saudis have only made it more resilient, sped up its rate of technological innovation and capped oil prices for at least a half-decade or more.” – Investors Business Daily

“Ritzheimer is the organizer of Friday’s ‘Freedom of Speech Rally’ outside the Islamic Community Center in Phoenix. It’s the mosque that Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi attended for a time. They’re the men who drove from Arizona to a Dallas suburb to shoot up a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest there. Both were killed by police early this month.” – CNN

“I hear this everywhere. Virtually every doctor and doctors’ group I speak to cites the same litany, with particular bitterness about the EHR mandate. As another classmate wrote, ‘The introduction of the electronic medical record into our office has created so much more need for documentation that I can only see about three-quarters of the patients I could before, and has prompted me to seriously consider leaving for the first time.'” – Charles Krauthammer/National Review

LOUISIANA

“Louisiana businesses would get a major tax break under legislation passed by the House Thursday, only a week after House members approved a state budget that would make businesses pay more. House Bill 828 phases out the corporate franchise tax over five years.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne and State Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite, plan to make an issue of what they call U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s ‘ineffective’ congressional record as they compete in the race for governor. Luke Bolar, the spokesman for the Republican senator, said such criticism is way off base, given that Vitter has strong record of working across the aisle to move important legislation.” – NOLA.com

“Gov. Bobby Jindal says he has ‘no concerns’ about a medical marijuana bill nearing final legislative passage and would sign it into law if it reaches his desk.” – Lake Charles American Press

“All anyone knows is that it’s going to be close. Two opposing groups dropped off signatures to the East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters Office Thursday — one trying to clinch a vote to create the city of St. George and the other trying to stop that vote from happening.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“The search committee overseeing the process of selecting the new president/chancellor of both Southern University in Baton Rouge and the Southern University System announced finalists for the combined position Thursday evening.” – WBRZ

“Two years after entering into a contract with the state of Louisiana to open and run a new charity hospital in New Orleans, the head of LCMC Health is wondering whether it may be best to walk away. Greg Feirn, CEO of the hospital system, said Thursday (May 28) that if University Medical Center doesn’t get the additional $88 million it has requested to open the $1.1 billion hospital this August, he and his board will have some critical decisions to make.” – NOLA.com

“A comment made by a WBRZ-TV reporter resulted in his arrest early Thursday morning after he was issued a criminal summons for interfering with a law enforcement investigation, a Baton Rouge police report says. Brett Buffington, 27, of 11959 Nicholson Drive, was booked on counts of interfering with an officer and intimidating a public official.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“It’s usually refreshing the way baseball is different. Coaches routinely throw players under the bus, so to speak, without consequence or second thought. Try that as a head football coach sometime. Baseball just has different quirks. So it was probably harmless the way several LSU players bore no apparent shame in mentally fast-forwarding through this week’s Baton Rouge regional and sneak-peeking ahead to a potential super regional matchup with Houston.” – Scooter Hobbs/Lake Charles American Press

“All of the above — Rollins’ call, the souvenir, the trotting and the celebrating — would not have unfolded if Zardon had hit a baseball in the same direction at the same time on the same pitch just one year ago. ‘New ball homer for sure,’ LSU director of baseball operations Nolan Cain tweeted moments after Zardon’s shot.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Over the course of 58 games that yielded the 2015 SEC regular-season championship and the No. 1 national ranking the last seven weeks, that final chapter of last year — back-to-back losses to Houston after being six outs away from a regional championship — was shoved to the backburner. Now, though, is the right time for LSU to dust off that indignity and use it as fuel.” – NOLA.com