Morning Constitutional – 16 April 2010

Good morning, everybody. Steven Seagal has…troubles. We have your morning constitutional:

President Obama on Thursday night announced new rules ordering hospitals that accept Medicare and Medicaid to grant visitation rights to same-sex partners. The new rules also make it easier for patients to allow their partners to make medical decisions on their behalf.

Volcanic ash continues to hold up air transport in Europe for the second day, swamping other modes of transport as travelers seek alternate modes of transportation.

Poland is hoping to not have to postpone the funeral for late President Lech Kaczyński, as the ash cloud over Europe may prevent world leaders from traveling to Poland to attend the funeral. The funeral is planned for Sunday.

Health and life insurance companies owned $1.9B worth of stock in…the fast-food industry, according to research published by the American Journal of Public Health.

Rich lady loves paying taxes.

President Obama \”expects to be around to see\” astronauts going to Mars in his lifetime.

It is widely believed that Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, won yesterday\’s debate, and as such, the Tories and Labour have trained their guns on Britain\’s newest political celebrity.

Paul Schlesselman was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for threatening to kill then-Senator Obama in October 2008.

Ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has left Kyrgyzstan for Kazakhstan, and now: Is the unrest over?

Florida Governor Charlie Crist has riled members of his party by vetoing teacher pay legislation that would have dropped teacher tenure and tied their pay to how well their students were doing.

Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank has a run-in with drunk tea partiers on a flight from Los Angeles to Boston.

A new poll suggests that Americans have become slightly more optimistic about the state of the economy.

Pulitzer prize winner foils bank robbery with bear hug.

President Obama reported $5.5M in income last year (mostly from sales of his books), and paid nearly $1.8M in federal income taxes. Always the pauper, Vice President Joe Biden reported a total of $333,000 in income.

Finally, the video game retailer GameStation has announced that, because of a clause it has added to the terms and conditions agreement on its website, it now owns the souls of thousands of its customers.