EmailThe Note's Must-Reads are a round-up of today's political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com
Compiled by ABC News Digital News Associates and Desk Assistants JACQUELINE NG FERNANDEZ, CLAUDIA MORALES, JAYCE HENDERSON, and MOLLY HUNTER
POLITICS
ABC NEWS Rick Klein: “'World News' Political Insights: Congress Returns to New Normal” It's time for Congress to get back to its new normal — where everything has changed, except that it hasn't really. Lawmakers this week return to Washington for their first substantive actions in the aftermath of last weekend's Tucson shooting. The tragedy had particular resonance on Capitol Hill, with the knowledge that one of their own was targeted for who she is. LINK
ABC News’ Michael Falcone: “RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s Re-Election Chances Appear to Weaken” The 168 members of the Republican National Committee are poised to elect a party leader on Friday in a vote that could end the tumultuous two-year term of current RNC Chairman Michael Steele. Members of the committee from all 50 states as well as U.S. territories as far away as Guam who are gathered at a conference center just outside Washington, D.C., were preparing for what could be a lengthy, multiple-ballot contest that will decide a contentious race between five candidates vying for the RNC's top job. LINK
The Hill’s Sam Youngman and Ian Swanson: “Obama To Tackle Critical Security, Economic Issues With China’s Hu” President Obama will try to enhance the U.S.’s growing and increasingly critical relationship with China this week when President Hu Jintao visits for a U.S.-Sino summit. The White House and business groups expect Hu to come bearing gifts. China’s president will see his term end next year, and is keen to have a summit that will add to his legacy. LINK
The Wall Street Journal’s Patrick O’Connor and Neil King Jr.: “Priebus Ousts Steele as RNC Chairman” Michael Steele's rocky tenure as chairman of the Republican National Committee came to an end Friday as party leaders elected a Wisconsin political official to lead the GOP's main campaign committee. LINK
HEALTH CARE
USA Today: “Obama, Republicans plan more civil health care debate” Things return more to normal in Washington this week, include a long-awaited House vote to repeal President Obama's health care bill– though the tone of the discussion is likely to be different in the wake of the Arizona shooting. LINK
GIFFORDS:
The Washington Post’s David Nakamura: “Giffords’s condition upgraded” Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was upgraded from critical to serious condition Sunday after doctors determined that there were no complications from having her ventilator removed a day earlier. LINK
FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
The New York Times’ David Sanger and Michael Wines: “China Leader’s Limits Come Into Focus as U.S. Visit Nears” With President Hu Jintao at the helm, China has become a $5 trillion industrial colossus, a growing military force, and, it sometimes appears, a model of authoritarian decisiveness, navigating out of the global financial crisis and sealing its position as the world’s fastest rising power. LINK
OTHER
The Boston Globe’s Bryan Bender: “$1b effort yields no bioterror defenses” The Pentagon is scaling back one of its largest efforts to develop treatments for troops and civilians infected in a germ warfare attack after a $1 billion, five-year program fell short of its primary goal. Even the heavy infusion of research cash and a unified effort by university labs and biotech companies from Boston to California were insufficient to break through limitations of genetic science, according to government officials and specialists in biological terrorism. LINK
Bloomberg’s Sandrine Rastello and Catherine Larkin: “Threat to Deny Increased Debt Ceiling Is `Playing With Fire,' Schumer Says” U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said that threatening to deny an increase in the government’s debt ceiling would be “playing with fire.” “If we didn’t renew the debt ceiling, our soldiers and veterans wouldn’t be paid, social security checks wouldn’t go out,” the New York Democrat said yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. LINK
NY Daily News’ Sean Alfano: Ronald Reagan Had Alzheimer’s While He Was President, Son Says In New Book” Former President Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer's disease during his second term in office, his son claims in a new book. Ron Reagan says that if his father's illness had been diagnosed while he was President, he would have given up control of the country. "I've seen no evidence that my father (or anyone else) was aware of his medical condition while he was in office," Reagan wrote in his book "My Father at 100.” LINK
ABC NEWS Video:
Herman Cain: ‘I can Beat’ President Obama LINK
Award Season Begins for 2010’s Top Entertainment LINK
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