NBC

• Fed's Yellen says met firm at heart of leak probes (Reuters)
• EU Raises Growth Outlook as ECB Counters Greek Threat (BBG)
• Hillary Clinton Takes Hit in WSJ Poll, but Holds Edge Over GOP Rivals (WSJ)
• China stocks slump on tighter margin rules, IPOs; Hong Kong down (Reuters)
• McDonald’s Chief Promises Turnaround in a Restructuring (NYT)
• German Bond Market Selloff Continues (WSJ)
• Vanguard overtakes Pimco’s Total Return following outflows in wake of Bill Gross’s departure (WSJ)
• EU Demands Concessions as Greece Hurtles Toward Deadlines (BBG)
• Junk Bonds Are The New Haven Assets (BBG)

Yesterday, around 7 pm, dozens of people were at a contest hosted by New York-based American freedom Defense Initiative at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas when police said two men pulled up in a vehicle and shot a Garland Independent School District Security guard in the ankle at about 7 p.m. The men were then shot and killed by Garland police. While the FBI did not have any immediate comments or speculation on the reason behind the attac, according to the Site intel group, overnight it was Islamic State supporters who took "credit" for the bungled shooting attack.

"Sir, we know you spent $13,000 on a seat for the Derby but as you can see, we are full. Please take your Citation over to Lexington. We hear they have some spots."

The Baltimore riots may have calmed down but their aftermath remains, and nowhere is it more tangible than what is taking place in Orioles Park right now.

• Police enforce curfew in Baltimore, disperse protesters (Reuters)
• Saudi king resets succession to cope with turbulent times (Reuters)
• Euro-Area Bank Lending Increases for First Time Since 2012 (BBG)
• Riksbank Increases Bond Purchases as Key Rate Left Unchanged (BBG)
• Greek Banks Get More Funds as ECB Weighs Collateral Discount (BBG)
• Greek bank deposits drop 1.36 pct in March for sixth month in a row (Reuters)
• Sarao Remains in Jail After Failing to Pay Bail at Hearing (BBG)

The collapse of Q1 GDP has been placed squarely on the shoulders of weather (too hot, too cold, and definitely not just right) and the dockworkers strike which shut 29 seaports. As Q1 GDP plunged, so Q2 was lifted hockey-stick-like to keep the growth dream alive but so far in Q2, data has not shown the bounce expected... so we are going to need a bigger excuse. We have found one! As NBC Los Angeles reports, truck drivers who haul goods from the nation's busiest port complex in Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike Monday in the latest action as part of a long-running labor dispute (it wasn't immediately clear how many of the 16,000 truckers would walk off the job).

"Louisiana faces a $1.6 billion budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year, a result of both plunging oil-tax revenue and the state’s failure to enact adequate tax increases or spending cuts after the economic downturn in 2009. The latest plans would mean an 82 percent cut to the state’s public colleges and universities."

Anthrax Was As Important As 9/11 In "Justifying" the War on Terror, the Iraq War, and the Patriot Act

Based on the newsflow in the last few weeks, Americans must increasingly consider themselves lucky just to avoid getting shot in the back or being run over by trigger-happy, heavily armed officers of the law. Unfortunately while we (hope we) mostly jest, the reality is that America has quietly turned into a heavily weaponized police state right under everyone's noses. A police state in which one doesn't have to be considered even a remote threat by the authorities to suffer. Consider the completely innocuous act of feeding the homeless, with a permit, which as San Antonio philanthropist Joan Cheever, founder of the nonprofit food truck, the Chow Train, discovered last week was enough to get her ticketed and fined $2000 for feeding the homeless.

The propagandistic American “media” and the crazed neoconservatives have set humanity on the path to destruction. The American people and the entire world need to understand that the threat to life on earth resides in Washington and that until Washington is fundamentally and totally changed, this threat will remain as the worse threat to life on earth. Global Warming can disappear instantly in Nuclear Winter.

Update: *LOCKDOWN LIFTED AT U.S. CAPITOL AFTER GYRO COPTER ARREST

US Capitol Police have locked-down buildings after a man landed a gyrocopter on the lawn. As The Tampa Bay Times reports, the man is a mailman from Ruskin named Doug Hughes who was attempting to deliver campaign reform messages to Congress.

We are sure this is nothing to worry about... and Japanese officials will re-iterate that everything is on track but when a snake-like robot sent to inspect a reactor containment vessel at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant dies three hours into the operation, one might wonder just how "contained" the radiation situations really is.

Moments ago NBC and various news wires reported that the US Capitol was on lockdown following reports of a suicide on the west front of the building. Related to this incident, the U.S. Capitol Police are continuing to investigate the suspicious package on the lower West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol Building. AP quotes Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police says in a statement that the suspected shooter has been "neutralized," but there is no immediate explanation what that means.

What could possibly go wrong? Clearly having not learned their lesson from 'interfering' in free markets (and all the deflation-creating over-supplying, crony-capitalizing, taxpayer money-wasting malinvestment that goes with it), NBC News reports, The White House has announced a goal to train 75,000 workers in the solar industry by 2020, many of them veterans. In a sentence only President Obama could utter, he explains "these are good-paying jobs that are helping folks enter the middle-class." Climate 'fixed', folks 'fixed', veterans 'fixed' middle-class-economics 'fixed'... and we are sure it will be unequivocally good for America (until trade wars pick up once again).