What Wolf's reading: Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Each day, Wolf Blitzer scours several news sources to stay on top of the day's most important stories. Below are some of his top recommended reads for today. Tune in from 5- 7 PM on CNN for the latest on these stories and more.

CNN: Iowa finally in the spotlight
President Obama visits a factory in Bettendorf. Sarah Palin attends a movie premiere in Pella. Iowans will go to bed with their political bellies full on this day. A couple of months ago, those bellies were growling. Iowa's notoriously impatient political class was complaining loudly that candidates in the 2012 field were giving this crucial early voting state the cold shoulder.

UPI: Morici: 'Bipartisan' CBO peddling Obama’s low-growth hoax
The U.S. economy is skidding and President Barack Obama is fresh out of "progressive" fixes. To create the appearance of action, the president promotes education, even though millions of recent graduates are working at venues like Starbucks, and taps the strategic petroleum reserve, when stalling growth has already pushed down gas prices for six consecutive weeks.

CNN: Nebraska nuclear plant officials reject comparisons to Fukushima
Tim Nellenbach is on a mission as he shows a small group of journalists around his workplace. The manager of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant and his colleagues are bent on dispelling rumors about the condition of their facility: rumors about a meltdown, about a loss of power. The rumors are patently false, they say, and it's frustrating to have to deal with them while also battling a genuine crisis.

CNN: Greek austerity protests turn ugly as strike begins
Greek riot police fired tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators Tuesday, as thousands marched to protest proposed austerity measures on the first day of a two-day strike. Some protesters threw rocks at security forces.
One demonstrator and three police officers have been slightly injured, the police said. About 3,000 officers are deployed on the streets of Athens.

Washington Post: Obama pushing behind scenes to win over big-dollar donors
President Obama and top White House aides are waging a behind-the-scenes push to win over skeptical big-dollar donors – whose early money is needed to help fund a dramatic summertime expansion of his battleground-state machinery. Campaign officials are working to broaden Obama’s network of “bundlers,” the well-connected rainmakers tasked with soliciting big checks from wealthy donors, while seeking to preserve the aura of a grass-roots movement by luring back the kind of small Internet donations that helped shatter fundraising records four years ago.

CNN: 'Whitey' Bulger enjoyed Vegas gambling trips, prosecutors say
James "Whitey" Bulger lived "a relatively comfortable lifestyle" with his girlfriend for the 16 years he was a fugitive, including numerous gambling trips to Las Vegas, according to a government document filed in his case Monday. Bulger, 81, and Catherine Elizabeth Greig, 60, were arrested Wednesday after he was lured out of his Santa Monica, California, apartment by an FBI ruse. The alleged East Coast mobster, who was on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list, faces charges in 19 mob-related murders.

New York Times: U.S. Endorses France’s Lagarde as New I.M.F. Chief'
Christine Lagarde was expected to be named Tuesday as the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund, taking on one of the most powerful positions in global finance as a worsening debt crisis in Greece rattles financial markets worldwide. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner announced Tuesday that the United States would back Ms. Lagarde, France’s influential finance minister, over the Mexican central bank governor, Agustín Carstens, her only competitor for the job, all but sealing her victory.

USA Today: Democrats pitch DREAM Act as needed economic patch
The last time the Obama administration made a hard push to legalize some of the children of illegal immigrants, officials focused on some of the inspirational and sympathetic stories of honor students who could gain legal status through the DREAM Act. As Democrats renew their push for that act in a Senate hearing Tuesday, the sales pitch will also focus on how those children can help the nation's foundering economy.

CNN: Syrian dissidents allowed to meet in Damascus
Syria's embattled government allowed about 200 activists and intellectuals, including some it had previously jailed, to hold a conference on democratic reform Monday at a Damascus hotel. …But some of those who have been risking arrest or bodily harm as President Bashar al-Assad tries to suppress a wave of anti-government protests say the people in the hotel don't necessarily speak for them.