Morning Constitutional – Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Good morning, folks. It\’s primary day in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma and Vermont. But now, your morning constitutional:

Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia has blocked President Obama\’s executive order that expanded embryonic stem cell research.

At least 33 were killed after Somali insurgents disguised themselves as police officers and stormed a Mogadishu hotel.

According to an American aid worker and a Congolese doctor, Rwandan and Congolese rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days within miles of a U.N. peacekeepers\’ base near remote eastern Congo mining district.

Is the Senate\’s inability to pass a food safety bill—the House passed a bill in July 2009, 60 food recalls ago—to blame for the slow response to the egg salmonella outbreak?

House Democrats are planning a coordinated effort to highlight progress on small business issues and urge Republicans to stop obstructing a small business loan that was passed by the House and is languishing in the Senate.

The U.S. is turning to the C.I.A. station chief in Afghanistan to mend the troubled relationship between the U.S. and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a role generally taken by diplomats or military leaders.

Kristin Davis, a former madam who claims to have provided call girls to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, is running for governor herself as an independent.

House Minority Leader John Boehner wants the president to fire his economic team.

You know things are bad for the Red Sox when they are looking to Jesus just to make the playoffs.

Is privatizing prisons the way to save money?

Infrastructure is on sale, a bank run in reverse.

Paul Krugman discovers what it\’s like to watch movies and TV shows located in D.C.

Where are the cures promised by stem cells, gene therapy, and the human genome?

Finally, Southern Sudan, which expects to be flush with oil revenue in coming years, plans to build animal-shape cities.