Morning Must Reads: Spring

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Official White House photo by Pete Souza

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

–The economy added jobs 290,00 jobs in April, the biggest jump in four years. The unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent as the labor force swelled with people looking for work. President Obama is expected to address the report at 11 a.m. ET.

–Last night in financial reform: The GOP amendment limiting the scope of the consumer protection bureau went down, as did the Kaufman-Brown amendment to bust up the biggest banks. Bernie Sanders’ proposal to audit the Fed got delayed, but it’s expected to pass next week. He struck a deal with the Democratic leadership (and the White House) to limit the audit to a one-time scrutiny of the central bank’s response to 2008’s financial crisis, stripping out provisions for future audits. The proposal won’t touch monetary policy.

–Obama’s Supreme Court pick is expected early next week. Orrin Hatch is cheerleading for Merrick Garland.

Mark Mazzetti and Mark Landler report the Times Square case has sparked discussion of expanding U.S. presence in Pakistan.

Alex sums up Bob Bennett’s plight. The Senator in his own words:

“Well there’s a great anger about Washington,” Bennett said. “A lot of people say, ‘We hate what’s going on, we hate everybody who’s there.’ And in Utah, the only ‘anybody’ they can vote, vote against who happens to be there turns out to be me.

–Carly Fiorina, Tom Campbell and Chuck DeVore scramble right in California.

Ronald Brownstein writes up a new National Journal Heartland Monitor poll:

In the Heartland Monitor poll, just one-third of adults endorsed the conservative notion that government is more the problem than the solution to our economic difficulties; another third backed the liberal conviction that government must play an active role in policing the marketplace. The decisive remainder, about three in 10, said they were open to an activist government but weren’t convinced that it could deliver results that improve their lives.

Those findings suggest that if the budding economic recovery accelerates, the GOP’s rightward march could leave it on shaky ground with voters focused more on results than ideology.

He also sees no health care bump and polarization hardening around Obama policies.

–And the UK has a hung parliament. What happens next? Gordon Brown tries to form a government while Americans make Tom Jane jokes.

What did I miss?