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He's made his name with a controversial show that catches would-be internet sex perverts in televised stings. But now Chris Hansen has found himself on the receiving end of his own hidden camera tactics, after the married NBC anchor was secretly filmed on an illicit date with a blonde television reporter 20 years his junior. Hansen, 51, has allegedly been having an affair with Kristyn Caddell, a 30-year-old Florida journalist, for the last four months. Last weekend he was recorded taking Miss Caddell on a romantic dinner at the exclusive Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, before spending the night at her...

Sir Walter Scott wasn't writing about politics when he sagely observed two centuries ago, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." But he could have been – and his poetry perfectly describes the ironic consequences of two deceptive California ballot measures drafted by Democratic politicians and their allies. Last week, state Controller John Chiang invoked the intertwined provisions of the two measures, 2004's Proposition 58 and last year's Proposition 25, to cut off salaries and expense payments of state legislators because they failed to pass a balanced budget by the June 15 constitutional deadline....

Via POLITICO's Jennifer Epstein, Michele Bachmann isn't accepting an apology from Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace for asking her yesterday, "Are you a flake?" Continue Reading ABC News' Jon Karl, who's been getting face-time with Bachmann in Waterloo in advance of her formal campaign announcement, played a clip of the web video in which Wallace said, "I messed up. I'm sorry." When Karl asked if she accepts the apology, Bachmann brushed aside the question this way: "I think that it's insulting to insinuate that a candidate for president is less than serious."

AN ANTONIO — Mexico is asking Texas authorities to tone down travel warnings that broadly discourage tourists from crossing the border because of violence. The head of Mexico’s state-run tourism board on Wednesday was in Austin to meet with Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade and law enforcement officials. Mexico wants Texas to stop portraying the entire country as unsafe in travel bulletins. A spring break advisory in March cautioned Texans against traveling even to popular resort areas such as Cancun because of crime. Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete, who runs Mexico’s tourism board, said travel to pockets like violent Ciduad Juarez is...

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, via AP: Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Current and former U.S. officials say that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden’s most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed’s successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania. The ironies of this story are growing...

Rapper Afroman, best known for his songs about marijuana use, was sued today for failing to appear at a concert at The Patio at the Continent in Columbus, Ohio. The lawsuit, filed in the Franklin County Municipal Court, alleges that Afroman forgot to appear at an April 9, 2011 concert scheduled at The Patio. “We set a date and signed a contract. I even sent the deposit to Afroman himself, right away. They must have just forgotten about our show,” said Nathan Pettry, a concert promoter working with The Patio. Afroman is best known for his hit song “Because I...

Just a little fun on an an early morning! Please fell free to add your own quips, on things that send our Democrat/liberal friends in to low orbit. Mine so far: "So, have you seen real Obama's Birth Certificate, yet?" "Have you paid your taxes lately?" "How's those gas prices, eh?" "What happened to your 'Close Gitmo NOW!' sign?"

Former Mayor of Chelmsford Margaret Hutchon was waiting for a stomach op A former NHS director died after waiting for nine months for an operation - at her own hospital.Margaret Hutchon, a former mayor, had been waiting since last June for a follow-up stomach operation at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex.But her appointments to go under the knife were cancelled four times and she barely regained consciousness after finally having surgery.Her devastated husband, Jim, is now demanding answers from Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust - the organisation where his wife had served as a non-executive member of the...

If anything, the Obama administration has a consistent knack for making me feel like I’m at a meeting of the Endangered Elephant Awareness Club while being served pachyderm-popper appetizers on an ivory plate. From Politico: "President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday. The secret presentation happened almost two weeks after the White House inexplicably postponed the ceremony, which was expected to be open to the press pool. This time, Obama met quietly in the Oval Office with Gary Bass...

In a speech Wednesday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., President Obama will outline his plan for America’s energy security, and according to senior White House officials, forge a new course in public discussion on the future of the country’s oil supply and energy independence. The speech marks the beginning of a concerted effort from the administration to communicate a satisfying energy plan in the wake of increasingly broad criticism of its approach to regulations and offshore drilling. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/30/obama-to-lay-out-plan-for-energy-security-in-concerted-effort-to-shift-the-public-dialogue/#ixzz1I5PDtRhJ

Of all the disturbing and problematic aspects of Obama's post-American military odyssey, what fascinates me is that Obama would rush to half-hearted war with Moammar Gaddafi -- of all people. After seeing the dreadful force of the U.S. military unleashed on his fellow ruthless dictator Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi was crying uncle before George W. Bush could twist his wrist. In December of 2003, Col. Gaddafi announced to the world that he would be voluntarily abandoning his nuclear weapons program. "Libya has said it will give up its programmes for developing weapons of mass destruction and allow unconditional inspections," reported BBC...

TORONTO — Canadian rock singers, here's your chance to be in "American Idiot." Producers say they'll hold an open casting call on Saturday in Toronto for the national Broadway tour of the Tony Award-winning musical, which is based on the Green Day album. Auditions will take place at 11 a.m. ET at the downtown Roy Thomson Hall. Casting agents from New York's Roundabout Theatre say they're looking for male and female rock singers in their early to late 20s. The show follows three working-class, lifelong friends who are forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia. Songs...

President Obama, Nobel Peace Prize winner, launched an attack on another country while in another country, without the congressional approval that George W. Bush had and with only about half as many other countries on board. Obama seemed to feel this constituted enough of a moral high ground from which to take a jab at the former president. *snip* As the folks at Fox quickly pointed out, Bush actually had twice as many international allies for the invasion of Iraq as Obama has put together for his adventure in Libya.

This weekend, American soldiers have once again stepped into harm’s way, as Operation Odyssey Dawn begins in Libya. Coincidentally, we’re also passing through a pop-culture moment of some significance, as a sizable portion of our cultural elite find themselves strongly at odds with audiences over an unexpectedly popular movie, Battle: Los Angeles. Pop-culture criticism can be a tricky affair. Critics often praise a film that audiences ignore, or vice versa. What’s interesting in this case is how profound the disconnect has become. Battle: LA passed the $60 million mark at the box office this weekend, but many critics don’t just...

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has spent nearly his entire life around powerful Republican politicians. So imagine his surprise when he learned that his birth certificate bears the John Hancock of one of the 20th century’s most powerful Democrats: the late Chicago mayor and Democratic Party boss Richard J. Daley. posted using frpa

WikiLeaks said it was taking “legal action” over a tell-all book to be released Friday by a former staff member that is critical of its founder, Julian Assange, and says the Web site was disabled by a spate of defections last year.

On tonight’s Rachel Maddow, EP Bill Wolff (filling in for Maddow) brought in Professor Melissa Harris-Perry for a fresh take, and she delivered: Michael Vick is the victim of centuries of black oppression– from dogs? Wolff requested of Harris-Perry a “historical” take on the matter, and while she barely mentioned Vick (and said nothing of Tucker Carlson), she gave an extensive history of African-Americans and dogs. “We want to be really careful here,” she warned, “There are some complex issues at stake whenever you are talking simultaneously about African Americans and talking about issues of animal rights.” She explained that...

Michele Bachmann. Friends, I am honored to have been selected by Speaker-designate John Boehner to serve on the House Intelligence Committee. As a mother of five biological children and twenty-three foster children I pledge to do whatever I need to do to keep your family,my family, and the United States safe from harm. 14 minutes ago

The US State Department has directed its staff around the world not to surf the WikiLeaks website, according to employees. The ban is in response to WikiLeaks' decision to published classified material, including US diplomatic cables. It’s not clear when the policy first began but it joins a similar order by the US Department of Defense put in place since the leaking of Iraq and Afghanistan war documents earlier this year. Analysts suggest the State Department is temporarily falling back on traditional bureaucratic protocols in the face of a crisis that is emblematic of the shift to an online world....

The wreckage of the Democratic Party is strewn just about everywhere. President Obama’s carefully constructed 2008 Electoral College breakthrough is now just broken, a long-ago memory of what might have been a lasting shift in partisan alignment.