Good Morning, News!

Well damn it. Turns out President Obama’s National Security Agency is every bit as terrible as President Bush’s. Wednesday we found out the NSA has been sifting through Verizon wireless records. Today: the revelation it’s been sending out stealthy feelers all over the web, too. According to the Guardian, a program known as Prism collects information from the country’s largest internet companies—providers like Google and Apple, which both denied assisting the NSA. The program is useful for “extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets,” says the Washington Post. They’re monitoring me even as I write this. Suck it, you guys.

Some Washington lawmakers, including Oregon’s own Sen. Ron Wyden, have cryptically warned about the surveillance for years.

Meanwhile, Obama’s first director of national intelligence explains to the New York Times that the administration just sort of blithely continued the questionable data-mining practices begun under President Bush. “In 2006 and 2007, everything was put under a legal basis. That looked pretty good to us, so we continued it.”

And by the way, Obama’s just about to sternly warn China to stop its Internet chicanery. Good luck with that.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife are divorcing. But the guy cavorts with leopards and migratory birds. He’ll land on his feet.

Science may soon be able to prevent PTSD.

A pair of NYC life coaches known for their radio show, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” apparently committed joint suicide.

Pot isn’t necessarily criminal in Vermont!

In this week’s Bike Issue, I made what felt like not so bold a claim: That June would probably be drizzly. The Weather Widget wasn’t having it. Touché.

Finally, a little soft-shoe.