"Although the issue of Puerto Rico's insolvency has been buried beneath other important news, Congress and the White House have been fighting over it lately. The island territory is in crisis because its improvident governments have accumulated $72 billion in debt, and they can't keep it up. ...

"This issue should concern you deeply, even if you never plan to visit. As Joseph Lawler notes in his cover piece of the magazine this week, Puerto Rico's collapse may be only 'the first leak to spring in the boat,' with many more coming all across the United States.

"Estimates of the 50 states' unfunded pension liabilities range from $1.3 trillion to $3.3 trillion, depending on the assumed rate of return. Illinois, Connecticut and Kentucky are three examples of states whose pension account is out of control already or nearly so.

"This is the result of states making unwarranted assumptions about growth in their pension funds, and failing to fund them properly, thereby leaving more money in the hands of extravagant politicians to spend immediately rather than saving for the future."

"Congratulations, liberals of the Washington press corps and elite organizations: You're a bunch of suckers. We all know this because the Obama White House just told us so.

"In an astounding New York Times piece by David Samuels, senior White House officials gleefully confess they use friendly reporters and nonprofits as public-relations tools in the selling of President Obama's foreign policy -- and can do it almost at will because these tools are ignorant, will believe what they're told, will essentially take dictation and are happy to be used just to get the information necessary for a tweet or two.

"Their greatest triumph, according to Samuels, was selling a misleading narrative about the nuclear deal with Iran -- the parameters of which were set a year before the administration claimed and had nothing to do with the fact that a supposedly more accommodating government had risen to power."

"The Obama administration is revising a federal rule that allows wind-energy companies to operate high-speed turbines for up to 30 years, even if means killing or injuring thousands of federally protected bald and golden eagles.

"Under the plan announced Wednesday, companies could kill or injure up to 4,200 bald eagles a year without penalty -- nearly four times the current limit. Golden eagles could only be killed if companies take steps to minimize the losses, for instance, by retrofitting power poles to reduce the risk of electrocution. ...

"Wind farms are clusters of turbines as tall as 30-story buildings, with spinning rotors as wide as a passenger jet's wingspan. Blades can reach speeds of up to 170 mph at the tips, creating tornado-like vortexes. ...

"Wednesday's announcement kicks off a 60-day comment period. Officials hope to issue a final rule this fall."

"Mr. Obama's efforts in Iraq today are the anti-Iraq surge. Whereas Mr. Bush in 2007 learned from his mistakes, Mr. Obama remains stubbornly committed to his failing approach. Whereas Mr. Bush listened to military leaders, Mr. Obama's favors inexperienced ideologues. Whereas Mr. Bush doubled-down to win in Iraq, Mr. Obama plays to run out the clock -- fueling a foolish narrative that the Islamic State will 'collapse under its own weight.' Whereas Mr. Bush ultimately did not care if his wartime decisions were politically popular, Mr. Obama preys on the anxieties of a 'war-weary' American public.

"Recent gains have been made against the Islamic State, with some of its terrain recaptured and its flow of foreign fighters slowing dramatically. There are signs of low morale and high desertion rates among its fighters. These are all good things. But as long as their black flag flies over Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, the caliphate will continue to export violence across the region (i.e., Libya) and inspire violence in the West."

"Despite a massive budget increase for the department charged with handling the illegal immigrant crisis, deportations by the U.S. Customs and Enforcement agency have plummeted 43 percent in just three years, according to federal data released by Sen. Jeff Sessions Monday.

"A new fact sheet from the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, chaired by the Alabama senator, said ICE agents removed 235,413 illegal immigrants in fiscal 2015, a decrease of 174,436 from the 409,849 removed in fiscal 2012.

"The biggest drop off came from deportations of illegal immigrants deep inside the United States rather than at the border, according to the data from the Department of Homeland Security."

"Puerto Rico's fiscal woes are approaching a boiling point. With more than $70 billion in outstanding debt, the territory has come to Congress, hat in hand, asking for help.

"There are prudent ways to address the problem, and there are short-term patches that will only make the problem worse in the long run. A bailout, like those we saw for Wall Street and the auto companies in the wake of the financial crisis, is a non-starter. Throwing good money at bad behavior would only entrench the poor financial management that led to the mess in the first place, while making everyone worse off down the road. ...

"Puerto Rico's problems are symptomatic of irresponsible budgeting and careless overspending, and the only remedy is long-term financial reforms. These reforms must rein in the excessive spending that plagued the Commonwealth for several decades and must get the island off the addictive promise of easy money."

"The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in 2015 decided not to deport but release 19,723 criminal illegal immigrants, including 208 convicted of murder, over 900 convicted of sex crimes and 12,307 of drunk driving, according to new government numbers.

"Overall, those released into virtually every state and territory of America had a total of 64,197 convictions among them, for an average of 3.25 convictions each, according to an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies. ICE also said that the group were convicted of 8,234 violent crimes."

"According to a survey commissioned by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, nearly 80 percent of parents favor allowing families to choose which public school their children attend, regardless of where they live.

"Support rises above 80 percent among Hispanic, black and low-income parents. In all three groups and overall, more than 50 percent of parents 'strongly favor' the concept. ...

"Given the geographic assignment that dominates the public school system, it is not surprising to see that about a third of parents said they moved so their child could attend a specific school. That portion was higher among wealthy families than low-income families."

"Terry McAuliffe was a Clinton henchman before he was governor of Virginia. He would be a Clinton henchman afterward, too, which means that he must be one during his governorship, to which end he has ordered -- without legal authority -- the automatic re-enfranchisement of felons stripped of their voting rights. Virginia is a swing state, Mrs. Clinton needs it, and Governor McAuliffe is therefore determined to deliver it to her.

"It is difficult to say which is more woeful: McAuliffe's cynical political calculation or the fact that it is entirely accurate. ...

"McAuliffe may believe that the Commonwealth of Virginia should change its law and automatically reinstate the civil rights (some of them, anyway) of felons who have completed their sentences and whatever probation or parole conditions were attached to them. He might even be right. But the Commonwealth of Virginia has not done that. Doing so would require a bill to be introduced in its state legislature, passed, and signed by the governor. No such thing has happened. The governor's executive privileges including granting clemency in certain criminal cases and restoring the civil rights (some of them, anyway) of rehabilitated criminals on a case-by-case basis. The ability to restore a felon's voting rights does not grant the governor the power to do so universally any more than his ability to pardon a convicted murderer empowers him to legalize murder."

"Secretary of State John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz have invested millions of U.S. dollars through family trusts in at least 11 offshore tax havens, according to The Daily Caller News Foundation's Investigative Group.

"The revelation comes on the heels of the release of the Panama Papers, a treasure trove of 11.5 million legal and financial records documenting how some of the world's richest and most powerful people have used offshore bank accounts to conceal their wealth and avoid taxes.

"Since the release of the papers, no American politician has been identified as using the secretive offshore accounts.

"But a DCNF investigation has confirmed that the former Massachusetts Democratic senator and his billionaire wife, using an elaborate set of Heinz family trusts, have invested 'more than $1 million' each into 11 separate offshore accounts -- mainly hedge funds in the Cayman Islands.'"