Blog Posts by Rachel Rose Hartman, Yahoo! News

Lauper (Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)UPDATED 2:25 p.m.

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee claimed Friday that he sent tweets to pop singer Cyndi Lauper, including one calling her "hot," and deleted them in order to draw the attention of a website that monitors politicians' deleted tweets. The website would then publicize the tweets to Lauper, Cohen claimed, fooling the media and drawing more attention to a White House concert at which Lauper performed.

Got that?

The Tennessee Democrat earlier this week sent two tweets to Lauper, who was performing at the Memphis Soul event at the White House Tuesday night.

"@cyndilauper great night,couldn't believe how hot u were.see you again next Tuesday.try a little tenderness," read one.

"Cyndi,Wow what a night!See you next Tuesday and Try a little tenderness again!Wow!What a special night.Thanks Steve," read the other.

Cohen deleted those tweets, but not before they were picked up by the Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops website and broadcast by media outlets, many of which noted the "hot" reference.

Cohen has gotten in trouble on Twitter before. In February, Politwoops disclosed that Cohen had deleted tweets expressing love to a young woman whom the lawmaker admitted was a daughter he recently learned he had fathered.

On Friday, Cohen quickly called a press conference in his office to say the Lauper tweets were just a ruse and a form of payback to those who reported on the tweets to his daughter.

He read from the following statement:

“Two months ago, my family was personally hurt and victimized by sensationalized, fact-less speculation masquerading as journalism. I hope this serves to bring attention to the need for journalistic integrity as well as encouraging everyone to watch the spectacular and hot performances of Memphis music."

UPDATED 3:13 pm ET

Instead of delivering his weekly address to the nation, President Barack Obama has asked Francine Wheeler, whose son was killed in the Dec. 14 mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., to deliver the remarks, which will air Saturday.

Obama personally tweeted the news after it was first announced by White House press secretary Jay Carney at Friday's briefing:

Francine Wheeler, a Newtown mom, will take my place in tomorrow's Weekly Address. It's a message everyone should hear: #NowIsTheTime. -bo

— The White House (@whitehouse) April 12, 2013

Family members of the 20 children and six educators killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December have been lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C., this week to pass legislation to reduce gun violence. Their work has been credited with preventing a bill to expand background checks for gun purchases from being blocked by a Senate filibuster.

The president "believes their voices and resolve have been critical to the continued progress we've seen in the Senate," Carney said of the families.

Gay marriage supporters outside the Supreme Court (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

As the Supreme Court debates the constitutionality of gay marriage issues and politician after politician comes out in support of same-sex marriage, a new poll (pdf) finds that a majority of Americans—53 percent—believe same sex couples should be able to marry and increasing numbers say they know someone who is gay.

Forty-two percent of respondents in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll said they oppose gay marriage, and support and opposition largely broke along partisan lines, according to NBC's analysis. Some 73 percent of Democrats said they support same-sex nuptials, while 66 percent of Republicans were opposed. Fifty-four percent of independents were in support.

Seventy-nine percent of adults surveyed said they know or work with someone who is gay or lesbian—a sharp increase from December poll figures that showed 65 percent of respondents knew someone who was gay or lesbian.

But the adults surveyed said that a personal connection doesn't influence their viewpoint. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed who said they know someone who was gay or lesbian said it doesn't influence their support or opposition to gay marriage. Fifteen percent said it did make them more likely to support it, and 4 percent said it made them less likely to support it.

The campaign for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday deplored reports that liberal activist group Progress Kentucky was behind an audiotape published Tuesday by liberal news website Mother Jones of a private meeting between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and top advisers.

"WFPL's reports that left-wing activists illegally recorded a private meeting inside our campaign headquarters are very disturbing. At this point, we understand that the FBI is immersed in an intensive criminal investigation and must defer any further comment to them," the Kentucky Republican's campaign manager, Jesse Benton, said in a statement about radio station WFPL's report.

Jacob Conway of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, told WFPL Thursday that Progress Kentucky founders Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison bragged to him about recording the Kentucky Republican's meeting, which they said they taped while standing in the hallway outside the meeting room.

The tape reveals a conversation between McConnell and his campaign advisers discussing how to challenge a potential Democratic challenger, actress Ashley Judd, by targeting her history of depression and her religious beliefs. Judd announced March 27 she would not run for the Senate seat.

McConnell's camp called for an FBI probe into the recording, saying it was illegally obtained, and met with investigators Wednesday.

Conway told Fox News Thursday that he came forward because he believed it was the right thing to do.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z in Cuba (Ramon Espinosa/AP)It's not often you hear rap lyrics recited in the White House briefing room.

But Thursday's press briefing quickly turned into a dissection of Jay-Z's latest lyrics.

I turned Havana to Atlanta...
Boy from the hood I got White House clearance...
Obama said "chill, you gonna get me impeached"
But you don't need this [expletive] anyway
Chill with me on the beach

Those lines from Jay-Z's "Open Letter" released Thursday were read deadpan by Politico reporter Donovan Slack, who was pressing press secretary Jay Carney on whether the White House was involved in permitting Jay-Z and wife Beyoncé's travel to Cuba.

The White House says it had nothing to do with the celebrity couple's travel plans—that all travel to Cuba is handled by the Treasury Department (which confirmed Tuesday that the trip was for "educational" purposes).

So what to make of Jay-Z's lyrics about getting White House clearance?

"I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury," Carney said.

With gun control dominating discussions in Washington, Vice President Joe Biden participated in an MSNBC roundtable on the subject on Thursday. His appearance capped off a string of appearances made by top White House players this week on gun violence.

Despite an assault weapons ban now taking a backseat to universal background checks—Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Wednesday announced a bipartisan plan to expand background checks to nearly every commercial gun purchase—the vice president continued to advocate against assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

"Certain weapons of war just don't belong in the street," Biden said. He spoke to a group that included: Colin Goddard, a former Virginia Tech student who was shot during the massacre there in 2007 and is now assistant director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; Cedric Alexander, chief of police in Dekalb County, Ga.; Tina Wilson-Cohen, founder of She Can Shoot; and Richard Feldman, president of the Independent Firearm Owner Association.

When the roundtable raised the issue of how to address assault weapons and high-capacity magazines already in use and in circulation, Biden responded that the guns with high-capacity magazines used in many recent mass shootings were not already in use or circulation.

"They purchased them as they decided to engage in these—this absolutely irrational act," Biden said. "The mentally ill don't, all of a sudden say, 'I've had this high-capacity magazine for the last 20 years or the last two years or five years, I think I'll go and kill some people.'"

The vice president also lamented the country's changing gun culture, hearkening back to his childhood and how his father took pride in his guns, used for hunting, and how he had impressed upon Biden their danger and power.

"It used to be we were dealing almost exclusively with hunters," Biden said. "There is a whole new sort of group of individuals now ... that never hunt at all. But they own guns for one of two reasons: self-protection, or they just like the feel of that AR-15 at the range. They like the way it feels—it's like driving a Ferrari."

First lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday delivered an emotional speech about reducing gun violence that focused on slain Chicago teenager Hadiya Pendleton. The remarks were an effort to encourage business leaders to invest in opportunities for city youth, but the first lady also used the appearance to send a message to Congress about the need to pass gun reform.

"Hadiya Pendleton was me, and I was her," Obama said at the fundraising luncheon in Chicago. The difference, Obama said, was that she "was able to grow up." Hadiya, 15, was shot and killed on Jan. 29 in a Chicago park. Her death occurred one week after she had performed at President Barack Obama's inauguration.

Michelle Obama said when she first met the Pendleton family after Hadiya's death, "I couldn’t get over how familiar they felt to me."

The Obamas have been in personal contact with the Pendletons, who were invited to sit in the first lady's box at the State of the Union, and they have used Hadiya's story to call for a legislative response to gun violence.

Obama began her speech on Wednesday discussing her roots in the city—the place where she was raised, where she worked and met her husband, and where they raised their daughters. Her voice broke as she described how difficult it was to watch Hadiya's friends talk about their slain "best friend."

The first lady said the difference between growing up to be a mother, lawyer and first lady "and being shot dead at the age of 15" were the opportunities she had had in her community, how safe it was, and her parents and schools.

She used Wednesday's experience to press for legislative action back in Washington, D.C. She said her husband is fighting to pass "common-sense gun reforms" to reduce gun violence. "These reforms deserve a vote in Congress," she said.

Campaign staff for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell met on Wednesday with FBI investigators concerning the alleged illegal bugging of McConnell's office.

"The FBI is taking this very seriously. They were at our office for about an hour today, and they tell us that they're running down some leads," Jesse Benton, the Kentucky Republican's campaign manager, told radio host Mike Huckabee on his show on Wednesday.

Benton likened the alleged incident to "Gestapo ... scare tactics."

The meeting with the FBI took place at the senator's Louisville, Ky., campaign headquarters, where information was handed over to agency officials, a source close to the campaign confirmed.

McConnell's campaign had called Tuesday for a probe into an audiotape published by liberal news website Mother Jones. The tape, made in February, included McConnell, top strategists and senior staff discussing the senator's re-election campaign and potential challenger Democratic actress Ashley Judd. On it, McConnell and staff discuss using Judd's history of depression as well as her views on religion against her. Judd decided on March 27 not to run.

Mother Jones said in a statement that it was recently provided the tape by an anonymous source: "We were not involved in the making of the tape, but we published a story on the tape due to its obvious newsworthiness. It is our understanding that the tape was not the product of a Watergate-style bugging operation. We cannot comment beyond that."