Romney tries to broaden appeal, tones down rhetoric - The Washington Times

		Sunday, April 29, 2012 Today's Top Stories
Romney tries to broaden appeal, tones down rhetoric Mitt Romney's Etch A Sketch moment is at hand. Now that he's the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Romney is shifting away from the "red-meat" issues of abortion and immigration and instead holding more events highlighting his appeal as a regular guy. Police blow up Wash. mountain bunker, find man dead Peter Keller spent eight years carving his hole in the side of the mountain, camouflaging the rugged underground bunker with ferns and sticks and stocking it with a generator and ammunition boxes sealed in Ziploc bags. Suspected in the deaths of his wife, daughter and pets last weekend, he headed there prepared for the long haul with high-powered rifles, scope and body armor. Chaperones among new Secret Service conduct rules Embarrassed by a prostitution scandal, the Secret Service will assign chaperones on some trips to enforce new rules of conduct that make clear that excessive drinking, entertaining foreigners in their hotel rooms and cavorting in disreputable establishments are no longer tolerated. Redskins rebuilt QB core includes addition of Cousins The Redskins orchestrated a quarterback makeover during draft weekend, adding Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins while releasing veteran John Beck. Washington was expected to take Griffin, but selecting another quarterback in the fourth round startled some, including the pick himself. Obama pokes Romney, Gingrich at White House Correspondents Dinner This year's primaries, the 2008 primaries, the General Services Administration scandal, even the Secret Service and Donald Trump were targets for President Barack Obama's scattershot humor at Saturday night's celebrity studded White House Correspondents Dinner. Brother of NFL players charged in second D.C. hammer attack A 19-year-old man accused of striking a woman with a hammer and fracturing her skull was charged Saturday with a second, previously unknown, attack in the Petworth neighborhood and ordered held in jail pending a preliminary hearing in May. Allen absorbs jabs from GOP rivals Former Sen. George Allen stuck to a mostly positive message of economic growth, energy independence and individual freedom Saturday, largely ignoring jabs from his GOP rivals in the first debate featuring all four Republican candidates running for Virginia's U.S. Senate seat. Green's gaffe opens door for Capitals' loss to Rangers in Game 1 A brutal change by Scott Hannan altered the course of the playoffs for the Washington Capitals a year ago. It led to a Tampa Bay Lightning overtime goal on the way to a sweep. Major Obama 'bundler' gets Dutch ambassador's post D.C. lawyer Timothy Broas, who has funneled more money to the political campaigns of President Obama than nearly anyone else, last week was recommended by Mr. Obama as the next U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. Joel and Victoria Osteen postpone event at National Park "America's Night of Hope at Nationals Park with Joel and Victoria Osteen" has been rescheduled to 4 p.m. Sunday due to the chance of rain. House defies Obama to pass student loan bill Defying a veto threat from President Obama, the House voted Friday to extend federal student loan subsidies for another year, and cover the added cost by slashing a prevention fund from Democrats' health bill. GOP follows Romney's lead in parrying Democrats As Mitt Romney has emerged as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Republicans in Congress are increasingly taking their cues from him — even if it causes heartburn and grumbling among conservatives unhappy about having to beat a tactical retreat. Syria accuses U.N. chief of encouraging 'terrorists' A Syrian state-run newspaper accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday of encouraging "terrorist" rebel attacks by focusing his criticism on the government, while other government media reported that the navy foiled an infiltration attempt by gunmen who tried to land on the Syrian coast in rubber boats. U.S. growth slows to 2.2 percent in first quarter Growth in the U.S. economy slowed to 2.2 percent in the first quarter from 3 percent at the end of last year, even as unusually mild winter weather gave a strong boost to consumer spending and car sales, the Commerce Department reported Friday morning. Obama targets diploma mills that market to vets President Barack Obama is telling military service members and their families that schools seeking to take advantage of them only "care about the cash." Dow regains ground it lost in April; Amazon surges It took a while, but the Dow Jones industrial average finally gained back all its losses for the month. Commentary MILLER: Obama's loan trap Congressional Republicans are once again getting outplayed by President Obama. Earlier in the week, they thought they had neutralized Mr. Obama's political college tour by agreeing in principle to extend government-backed student-loan interest rates for a year. EDITORIAL: Obama's weakly job numbers The credibility gap is widening between what the Obama administration says about the jobs picture and what Americans sense is the grim reality. Despite the official line that things are getting better, the employment situation is growing progressively worse. LYONS: How smart is intelligence bureaucracy? The 9/11 Commission concluded in its final report in 2004 that the U.S. intelligence community (IC) organization, as it was structured then, had contributed to a failure to develop a management strategy to counter Islamic terrorism. KNIGHT: The audacity of cynicism Barack Obama's 2006 best-seller, "The Audacity of Hope," gave us a number of clues as to how he would govern based on his worldview. We can't say we weren't warned. Amid the graceful prose, we see underlying hostility toward the idea of revealed truth (apart from his own). CONNERLY: Presidential payback As he prosecutes his proclaimed de- fense of America's mid- dle class in his campaign for re-election, President Obama often invokes the theme of "fairness." Everyone deserves a "fair shot," he says, in which everyone plays by the same rules. 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