INSTAVISION Mickey Kaus: Wisconsin Deals a Body Blow to Unions & Union Funding.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, over the objections of several of its members, has suspended an inquiry into the extent to which liberal arts colleges discriminate against female applicants to try to minimize gender imbalances in the student body.

ED MORRISSEY: Does capitalism provide a training ground for disaster recovery?

TAX-AVOIDING FATCATS FIGHT UNIONS AT PBS:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday that city officials are still hammering out WGBH’s payment for its fair share of city services — as members of the beleaguered public TV giant’s biggest union rallied outside its lavish $85 million Brighton headquarters. . . . While Menino lauded WGBH’s educational programming, the station hasn’t paid the city a dime for services, such as snow removal and fire and police protection, since moving into its new building four years ago.” . . . Meanwhile, at least 100 people rallied outside the station in support of the Association of Employees of the Educational Foundation, Communications Workers of America, Local 1300, after WGBH management gave the union its final contract offer last month.

“Management is trying to bust the union,” said union secretary and radio music librarian Alice Abraham. “The main problem is they’re trying to outsource all of our jobs.”

From the Huffington Post to PBS, everybody’s exploiting the working class these days.

OUCH: Irresponsible Gun Owner of the Day. “Gunshot wounds to the back of the thigh by officers practicing with handguns are usually the result of a combination of poor trigger discipline and oops-a-daisy re-holstering.”

UPDATE: See the update at the linked post — turns out that contrary to the initial reports, she was shot by a supervisor who was inspecting her weapon, so I guess the supervisor wins the award here. . . .

A REASON SYMPOSIUM: Looking Back At The Loughner Panic. That whole “new civility” thing disappeared, didn’t it, as soon as some Democrats got mad about something.

DO WE NEED the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage?

HEH: Teen Cancels Party After 200,000 RSVP On Facebook.

DEALS ON Nikon digital SLRs and lenses.

YOUR REGULATORS AT WORK: IRS Pays Enron Whistleblower $1.1 Million; Enron’s Collapse Could Have Been Avoided Had IRS Followed Up on Information in 1999.

GLENN LOURY ON the “perversion” of public-sector unions.

ONE MAN’S WAR AGAINST GRAVITY.

LESSONS FROM LIBYA for dictators in distress. “To ensure that the president does not focus unduly on your war, schedule it while he is preoccupied with other matters: a Motown concert, a conference on bullying, his golf game, and finalizing his Final Four picks.” Ouch.

Plus this: “Consider restarting your nuclear program, since the conditions that caused you to suspend it are gone. At most, the president will form a committee of several nations to talk to you; he will consider more sanctions if the world speaks as one. You need not worry about his ‘deadlines.'”

WHEN YOU DIE, what happens to your data?

NEW REACTOR DESIGNS that would avoid Japanese problems.

REVENGE of the electric car.

INSIDER TRADING SCANDAL UPDATE: Natasha Mayer: The SEC should investigate the Dept. of Education.

IN THE MAIL: From Rachel Neumeier, The Floating Islands.

THE INSTAWIFE talks men and men’s issues with Glenn Sacks, Tony Katz, and AlfonZo Rachel.

VIDEO: Political leader who couldn’t pass a budget lectures on fiscal responsibility.

CHANGE: Wholesale Food Prices Skyrocket. “Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974.”

PROF. JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Counterpunching that made-up line, ‘follow the money.’

THREAT TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY: Hidden Workforce Challenges Domestic Economic Recovery. “Workers who have lost their jobs but are not currently looking for new ones are not counted in the Department of Labor’s much-watched unemployment rate. Economists say the longer these workers stay out of the job market, the harder it will be for them to find employment, creating a vicious cycle that can spiral for months or longer. . . . Adding these workers to February’s jobless rate pushes it up to 10.5 percent, well above the more commonly cited 8.9 percent rate. An even broader measure of unemployment, which includes people forced to work part time, stands at nearly 16 percent.”

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Democrats Rope-A-Doping Republicans On Spending.

VOTERS ARE ANGRY: Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez Ousted in Recally by 9-1 Margin Over Tax Hikes, Pay Hikes for Unionized City Employees. “The spectacular fall from power comes after two years of missteps, ranging from granting top staffers big pay hikes to construction of a publicly funded stadium for the Florida Marlins to implementation of a property-tax rate increase that outraged an electorate struggling through an ugly recession.”

And reader Laurie Myers emails with this tidbit: “The unions tried to save him but failed big. I remember last year when the petitions were available to sign, a group in my office marched over together to the petition site to sign on. Many in this group were the same ones who couldn’t wait to vote for Obama, and they went as a group the day the polls opened to vote for him.”