WaPo media columnist Howard Kurtz writes: "Breaking with tradition and using a prepared list, Obama did not recognize journalists with The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal or USA Today -- the last four of which were not picked at last month's news conference, either. Instead, he called on reporters for Ebony magazine, Stars and Stripes, Univision, and Agence France-Presse . . ."

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Rumour floated:

National Newswatch is reporting that Alex Himelfarb, the former clerk of the Privy Council and Canada's current Ambassador to Italy, will soon be the chief of staff to Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

And shot down on Twitter by my colleage Glen McGregor:

"Rumor that former Clerk of Privy Council Alex Himelfarb will become Iggy's chief of staff is apparently not true.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Spring Break will consist of two days in Jamaica. The PMO announced this evening that Harper will visit Jamaica for two days in April -- April 19-20.

On Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with the Honourable Dr. Kenneth Baugh, Jamaica’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. It was Baugh's first official visit to Canada.   more »

On Wednesday this week, Sen. Marjory LeBreton announced that the federal government was spending $11 million for 900 projects across the country aimed to improving the lives of seniors. Who's going to quarrel with that? No one in Beauval, Saskatchewan, that's for sure. Beauval (pop 806) just got $20,000 for one of these projects ...    more »

From the inbox today (names removed). Noteworthy because I tend not to get many like this. But I can tell you I have had an increasing number of complaints from grassroots Tories about giving money to their party: "This annoys me. I have been giving to the Conservative Party for years, but it seems like the guys running the show there has just been waiting for an excuse to ask for more cash, to play more ads, and so on. Wash, rinse, repeat.

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I have been struck by the fact, even on the House of Commons Finance Committee, there wasn't a very clear understanding what EDC and BDC do and what their operating parameters are. In other words, EDC and BDC have a PR problem. They need to be more visible; to tell Canadians (and MPs) what they're doing. Well, lo and behold, the EDC at least is now putting out press releases calling attention to its role in helping Canadian manufacturers ...

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Asked by Globe and Mail journalist Anne McIlroy if he believed in evolution, Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear refused to answer. McIlroy reported his answer. Less than 24 hours after McIlroy reported Goodyear's non-answer, Goodyear gets asked the same question by another Globe and Mail journalist, Jane Taber, and this time he answers the question.

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On the day that Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technolgy, is getting the gears in some quarters for his inability to say that he believes in evolution, he and his department announced the award of $23 million in new or renewed Canada Research Chairs. The academic community is pretty much unanimous that the the Chairs program has been a big hit, helping to attract some top international research talent to move to and work in Canada and keep some of Canada's top talent from going elsewhere. So, given that there is the implicit suggestion in today's criticism of Goodyear that his government might not fund folks who are estabishing ever stronger evidence that evolution is as much a fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun, let's look at some of the researchers celebrating today's funding:

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Gary Goodyear, Canada's science minister, refuses to answer Globe and Mail science report Anne McIlroy when Anne asks Gary if he believes in evolution. Gary might want to ask Steve about evolution. That is to say, any one of the 700 Steves on this list. They're all scientists. And I'll bet many of them are Christians. And they all say evolution is an undisputed scientific fact.

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Every morning, as I walk up from the spot where I park my car (in what is known as The Pit, behind the Supreme Court) I've been noticing the sturdy and immense scaffolding that has now enveloped the rear of the West Block (pictured above, as seen from in front of the Bank of Montreal building Maria refers to in her piece, with the Centre Block's Peace Tower at the rear right).... The federal government will convert the former Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography into committee rooms for MPs as part of its plan to vacate the crumbling West Block next year, the Citizen has learned.

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