CHANGE: White House Yanks Debo Adegbile Nomination. “The Debo Adegbile story has ended. The White House yesterday pulled his nomination to head the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division after it was defeated on a procedural vote in the Senate in March. PJ Media was the first to report on the radical background of Adegbile within hours of the nomination being made. After Adegbile was defeated in a procedural vote, left wing groups held out hope that another vote would be scheduled in the Senate and Democrats who opposed Adegbile would suddenly support him. That didn’t happen.”

WHY WE SHOULD encrypt everyone’s email.

FEWER SUICIDES where the natural levels of lithium in the water is higher?

ELIANA JOHNSON: Jindal’s Gamble: Can a wonk win the nomination? If he’s planning on running in 2016, I recommend he consult with Mark Rippetoe now.

NOT A SITCOM: My Favorite Millennial.

THE UGLY TRUTH THAT EUROPEANS DON’T WANT TO CONFRONT: “The new anti-Semitism does not originate solely with the typical white-supremacist neo-Nazi; instead, the ugly truth that many in Europe don’t want to confront is that much of the anti-Jewish animus originates with European people of Muslim background.”

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 495.

TRANSPARENTLY BAD: U.S. Whistleblowers Feel Blowback. We need to enact the kinds of protections I describe in this piece.

SHOCKER: Fracking Not at Fault in Water Contamination.

This makes sense—fracking generally occurs thousands of feet underground, far, far below aquifers being tapped for drinking water. The water tables and the shale rock being hydraulically fractured are separated by impermeable layers of rock—that’s how these aquifers formed in the first place. It stands to reason, then, that contamination of drinking water would have to occur in the vertical parts of these wells that travel through these underground water reservoirs.

Water pollution is a serious issue, and one that certainly deserves ongoing scrutiny. But it seems as if the drinking water contamination issues that greens have pointed to as reasons to stop the shale boom have occurred due to well failures (often because of poorly poured cement casings), rather than due to fracking itself. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for improvement here, but it does suggest this is a manageable risk, rather than an indelible feature of the drilling process.

Sounds right to me.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: How ‘Consensual’ Sex Got A Freshman Kicked Out Of College And Started A Huge Debate.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Applications Decline at All Five Georgia Law Schools.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: US campus 2014: No booze, no sex, no laughing, & totalitarian politics. Just like the Islamic State only a lot more expensive.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Video Games.

Also, coupons galore in Office & School Supplies.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN FOR TODAY: Mining In The Last Frontier.

NOW ON SSRN, MY LATEST SHORT PAPER: Don’t Fear the Leaker: Thoughts on Bureaucracy and Ethical Whistleblowing. Download it early and often!

THE WSJ SAYS IT’S BOEING OVER SPACEX: Boeing Takes Lead to Build Space Taxi: Aerospace Giant Poised to Beat SpaceX for U.S. Contract to Ferry Astronauts. “Boeing Co.appears positioned to beat out two smaller rivals for the bulk of a multibillion-dollar NASA contract to ferry astronauts to and from orbit, according to government and aerospace-industry officials. An award to Boeing would represent a victory over the newer Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, which had been considered a favorite in many quarters because of its lower costs and nimbler approach. The decision on the development of space taxis will be a milestone for commercial space endeavors, locking in unparalleled authority for contractors to develop and operate vehicles with limited federal oversight. An announcement is expected as early as Tuesday. . . . If Boeing ends up with the largest share of the commercial-crew program’s future dollars, the Chicago company could buttress its position as a leading force in U.S. manned space efforts for generations.”

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Report – emails reveal ‘collusion’ with green activist groups over EPA climate agenda.

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Why Focus On Ray Rice Instead Of Lois Lerner? The focus on Ray Rice is to avoid talking about things like Lois Lerner.

ON THE OTHER HAND, OUR SYSTEM OFFERS MANY OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRAFT: U.S. Ranks 32nd (out of 34 OECD Countries) in International Tax Competitiveness.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Politically Connected: Ties Link Embattled Government Bank, Well-Heeled Consultants.

Among other roles, Albright Stonebridge Group helps clients with government relations and crafts messaging plans for businesses. It is not, however, a registered lobbying firm, according to records at the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit that tracks how money and lobbying affect politics.

Still, many of ASG’s top officials share a history with the Export-Import Bank and worked with the government agency in a variety of capacities.

The close ties with the Ex-Im Bank paid off for three clients that, collectively, benefited from more than $6.3 billion in financing from the bank between 2009 and 2013: Siemens AG, First Solar and Dow Chemical Co.

During that same period, Albright’s daughter, Alice Albright, was Ex-Im’s chief operating officer and executive vice president.

Sounds like another argument for my revolving door surtax.

OH, GOODY: Byron York: Mike Huckabee gears up for 2016 run. Well, that should give worried Democrats some hope.

Mike Huckabee is leading the Republican presidential race in Iowa. And not by just a point or two: in a new CNN survey, the former Arkansas governor, winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses, is at 21 percent, with his closest GOP pursuer, Rep. Paul Ryan, nine points behind. Rand Paul is 14 points back, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush 15 behind.

Few frontrunners choose not to run. And when Huckabee, not yet a candidate and officially undecided, invited a group of reporters to meet with him at a hotel outside Washington Monday, he certainly looked like a man preparing to jump into the race.

One obvious sign is that Huckabee is talking about world affairs. Back in 2007, when he first ran for the GOP nomination, he became frustrated when debates focused on the war in Iraq. “Do you realize that in four debates we never had a single question on education?” he once complained.

On Monday, though, Huckabee opened his discussion with foreign policy. He has just returned from a trip to Israel — his third this year. Huckabee, who is perhaps the walking personification of American evangelical support for Israel, says he has lost count of the times he has been there since his first visit in 1973. What he is sure of is that President Obama has taken the wrong approach to Israel’s latest conflict.

Well, that’s plucking the low-hanging fruit.

BOOTIES ON THE GROUND: U.S. military will lead $750 million fight against Ebola in West Africa. “President Obama will announce Tuesday that the U.S. military will take the lead in overseeing what has been a chaotic and widely criticized response to the worst Ebola outbreak in history, dispatching up to 3,000 military personnel to West Africa in an effort that could cost up to $750 million over the next six months, according to senior administration officials.”

Whether or not you favor this, it does underscore something I’ve been pointing out — that officialdom seems pretty worried about this outbreak compared to those in the past.

WELL, BUT SO IS OUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF: WaPo Editorial: The U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State is underpowered.

“DJANGO UNCHAINED” ACTRESS’S CLAIM OF POLICE OVERREACH SEEMS TO HAVE FALLEN APART. “Anyway, let’s go to the video and you can judge for yourself. From what I can tell, any investigation into this is going nowhere. The officer was completely within his rights to ask Watts for her ID and she flipped out on him. He conducted himself in a calm manner, in the view of many, knowing he was being filmed. This sounds more and more like somebody who wants to be a big shot and attract the spotlight.” Just another reason all of these interactions should be recorded.