YESTERDAY I ASKED IF ANYONE WAS SENDING GUNS TO THE COPTS. Martin Roth emails: “In my latest thriller, The Coptic Martyr of Cairo, a Christian militia team arrives (from Korea) to help a Coptic church under attack from Islamists.”

Okay. Is anyone sending non-fictional guns to the Copts?

TRANSPARENCY: EPA memo promises emphasis on transparency after FOIA lawsuits.

Acting Administrator Robert Persiacepe circulated an agency-wide warning to Environmental Protection Agency employees yesterday about complying with the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Persiacepe’s memo was issued as EPA faces a growing controversy in the news media and federal courts sparked by revelations earlier this year that his predecessor used a fake email name to conduct official business. . . .

The EPA has been hit with a series of lawsuits seeking emails and instant messages and accusing the agency of hiding information from watchdog groups. The most recent lawsuit, filed last week by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the American Traditions Institute, seeks to force the agency to disclose how evenly its transparency policies are applied to environmental groups and transparency watchdogs.

“It is clear from Bob Perciasepe’s memo that our IM lawsuit prompted discovery of more EPA violations of record-keeping and disclosure laws,” said Chris Horner, lead attorney in the EPA FOIA suit. ”His mention of IMs for the first time publicly indicates EPA is about to reveal whether it has been sloppy, deceitful, or possibly even criminal in its refusals to turn these records over to FOIA requesters and Congress.”

Horner said he suspects the EPA has been destroying IM chat records to avoid being forced to release them.

Related: OMB nominee ‘uncomfortable’ promising to follow law on transparency about regulations.

Sylvia Burwell, President Obama’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), told Congress that she’s “uncomfortable” with the idea of promising to publish the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda by the legally-deadline.

“Because I don’t know the facts behind what happened, that’s why I’m uncomfortable making a commitment, because I don’t know the facts behind the issue,” Burwell told Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, today during a Senate hearing.

Obama did not release a regulatory agenda in 2012 until December — “after the election, incidentally,” Portman observed — despite a law and a Bill Clinton executive order requiring that the White House release an agenda in the spring and fall of each year.

Portman wrote two letters about the issue to Obama last year, but never received a response.

They’re transparent, all right. You can see right through them.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Blood Money, Kill Lists, Favors for Favors: Deep Inside the CIA’s Targeted Killings.

EXPIRATION DATE ARRIVES: Outraged Liberals Say Obama Is About To Screw Over The Very People Who Got Him Elected.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, WE’D SEE THIS SORT OF THING: IRS to Reduce Audits of Big Businesses by 18%. And they were right!

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Interests Diverge On Interest Rates. “When the White House releases its budget request for the 2014 fiscal year this morning, the plan is expected to include a new method for determining the interest rate for federal loans based on market rates, rather than rates that only Congress can adjust. The proposal has bipartisan support but is strongly opposed by the same student groups that were Obama’s allies on the interest rate issue a year ago (as they have been on many other higher education issues).”

WAS THE IRAQ INVASION WORTHWHILE? Ask An Iraqi. “I take Toni Morrison’s beliefs seriously. The serial and tragic mistakes of the Bush administration, and the naivete of people like me, make questioning the value of the invasion necessary. I thought that Iraq, with competent American help, could make the transition to at least semi-democracy, even after suffering such physical and psychological damage during the bleak years of Saddam’s reign. But those who believe the invasion was an act of insanity — especially those who fashion themselves as advocates for human rights, dignity and liberation — should at least ask Saddam’s many victims for their opinion on the matter before rendering final judgment. I would encourage Morrison, too, to talk to Iraqi victims. I’m sure the American University in Sulaimani would be happy to give her a visiting professorship.”

If you take Toni Morrison’s beliefs seriously, then the naivete hasn’t entirely gone away.

RICH HAILEY: Rick Warren’s Tragedy is Not a License to Attack.

MARK LEVIN GOES NUCLEAR.

ROLL CALL: Manchin, Toomey Prepare to Unveil Gun Deal.

A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators signaled Tuesday night that it has reached a deal in principle on expanding background checks to include more gun sales, in what was widely seen as the major sticking point on the biggest gun control legislation to reach the floor since 1994.

Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., and Patrick J. Toomey, R-Pa., said they would hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Wednesday to discuss the details of the tentative deal, which was reached with the support of Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and could entice a significant number of other lawmakers to sign on. Schumer told reporters that some details still needed to be worked out but that “we’re closer than we’ve ever been.”

“Tomorrow we hope to finalize it,” Manchin said Tuesday night. A Toomey spokesman added, “Sens. Toomey and Manchin continue to work on final details, but they appear close to a deal.”

I suspect that West Virginia gun owners will regret letting Manchin slide by last election.

HEH: “So that’s what austerity looks like.”

Related: “Doing without is for the rubes.”

THE HILL: Reid plows ahead on gun control legislation. “Democrats are confident they have the votes to bring gun control legislation to the Senate floor this week. But getting the votes to pass the bill later this month will be much harder. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has not yet conducted a formal whip count, but at least eight Republican senators have said they will not attempt to block an effort to bring up the measure, a senior Democratic aide said.”

Of course, there haven’t been committee hearings, and we haven’t seen the bill yet. But apparently we don’t do things the old-fashioned way anymore.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “A professor at a public university in Texas is under investigation from school administrators for allegedly forcing students in her graphic design class to create anti-gun posters for a personal anti-gun campaign she had launched.”

ED DRISCOLL: As Heads Is Tails. “By the way, remember when the left pretended that they thought somebody like Donald Segretti was a bad guy?”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Confessions of a Counter-Revolutionary. Counter-revolutions often succeed, as long as counter-revolutionaries aren’t halfhearted in their efforts.

21st CENTURY BROWNSHIRTS: Tolerant UMass Liberals Celebrate Diversity By Shouting Down Karl Rove. They call him a war criminal, but give President Dronekiller a pass.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on bestselling Xbox 360 videogames.

Also, today only, Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon on Kindle for $1.99.

HOUSE OF HORRORS: “It didn’t have eyes or a mouth but it was like screeching, making this noise. . . . It was weird. It sounded like a little alien.”

More here.

None of this stuff is protected by Roe v. Wade. Just by the journalistic establishment.

WALTER BLOCK: The Privatization of Roads and Highways.

HYPOCRISY: CBS News: Giffords, Kelly own guns while pushing gun control. But watch the couple, with CBS, try to draw fine distinctions. This is embarrassing.

JOHN HINDERAKER: What Does Obama Think He’s Doing On Guns?

DAVID BERNSTEIN IS LOOKING FOR SOME LOST RELATIVES.

WHO NEEDS FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ANYWAY? Proposed FDA safety rules frustrate tree fruit farmers.

THEIR APPEAL IS BECOMING MORE SELECTIVE: Holy Cow: Two of the Big Four TV Networks Are Considering Going Off the Air.

MAYBE THERE ARE NOTES in all sorts of books.