Investors will grapple next week with major U.S. economic reports and the looming possibility of a Greek exit from the euro zone

I’d love to just let them fail and get this over with…

As contingency plans are made for Greece’s possible departure from the euro zone, investors may not get a clear picture until Greece holds elections on June 17. As a result, U.S. economic statistics may grab the spotlight during the holiday-shortened week.

Major releases include consumer confidence, gross domestic product and on Friday the May non-farm payrolls report, which could provide clues on whether the economy is running out of steam or has simply hit a soft patch.

U.S. financial markets will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.

Corporate news next week is expected to be light, with the first-quarter earnings season largely in the rear view mirror. Among S&P 500 .SPXcompanies, only government contractor SAIC Inc (SAI.N) is scheduled to report next week

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They should have done the same with their banks….

France’s new President Francois Hollande is in Afghanistan to meet with troops and the country’s president and discuss plans for an early pullout.

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I feel bad for laughing but…

The man, police said later, was looking for someone he believed owed him money when he went into the Prudential Executive Group Real Estate office in Valparaiso on Friday morning. Valparaiso Police Chief Michael Brickner said officers believe the gunman shot himself twice in the head before SWAT members rushed in almost seven hours later, after the last two hostages were released unharmed.

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The Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate and a veteran of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak’s autocratic regime will face each other in a runoff election for Egypt’s president, according to first-round results.

The divisive showdown dismayed many Egyptians who fear either one means an end to any democratic gains produced by last year’s uprising.

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FIND THE CLAM IN THE SKY!

South Africa and Australia will share the Square Kilometer Array, a project that that will see the construction of the world’s biggest radio telescope complex and may reveal whether there is life beyond earth.

The member countries of the group organizing the project unanimously decided that both of the shortlisted candidate nations should host the project. The majority of the first phase dishes will be built in South Africa, which is considered a “preferred site,” the group said in an e-mailed statement today.

“It’s an international, global project and one of the important things we seek to achieve is the broadest possible support for it,” Michiel Van Haarlem, the director-general of the Manchester, England-based organizing body, said in an interview at The Netherlands’ Schipol airport, where the decision was taken. “That’s needed, it is an expensive project and we need as many countries as possible to carry the costs.”

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President Obama will host former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, at the White House next week for the unveiling of their official portraits, bringing the two presidents together at a time when Mr. Obama has been castigating Mr. Bush’s record on the campaign trail.

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In two campaign speeches over the last two days, President Barack Obama has twice mistakenly mentioned “my sons” when defending his administration’s regulation requiring virtually all health-care plans in the United States to provide women, without any fees or co-pay, with sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that can cause abortions.

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(Reuters) – A Russian cargo ship loaded with weapons is en route to Syria and due to arrive at a Syrian port this weekend, Al Arabiya television said in a report that Western diplomats in New York described on Friday as credible.

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A woman who texted her boyfriend as he drove isn’t liable for his car crash that injured a couple riding on a motorcycle, a state judge in New Jersey ruled.

State Superior Court Judge David Rand yesterday dismissed claims against Shannon Colonna, who had argued that her texting played no role in the crash that injured David and Linda Kubert. The Kuberts sued Colonna and her boyfriend, Kyle Best, blaming her texting in part for his crash on Sept. 21, 2009.

Rand, who sits in Morristown, rejected arguments by the Kuberts that Colonna knew Best was driving and her texting aided and abetted his violation of motor vehicle laws, according an attorney for the Kuberts, Stephen “Skippy” Weinstein. The case appeared to be the first of its kind in the nation, he said.

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China’s allegation that renewable- energy subsidies in five U.S. states violate free-trade rules ratchets up a potentially costly trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

“It’s a long, slow escalation of trade and currency wars as we race to the bottom,” saidTheodore O’Neill, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities Inc. of New York.

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I LMFAO at this, this is seriously funny!

As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called “TA,” short for “total absorption.” To place this in the physical and political context of another young man who would grow up to be president, TA was the antithesis of Bill Clinton’s claim that as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford he smoked dope but never inhaled.

THIS IS RICH….HERE

In their quest to portray Mitt Romney as a heartless “Richie Rich” character, Democrats have been combing through scores of deals the Republican presidential hopeful did during his time running Bain Capital.

The latest attack is on Gartner Group, a market research company which made a fortune for Bain in the early 1990s – $55m, or 16 times its initial investment. Democrats say it provided outsourcing advice to companies, in sharp contrast with the Republican’s tough talk on trade with China.

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Northside Independent School District plans to track students next year on two of its campuses using technology implanted in their student identification cards in a trial that could eventually include all 112 of its schools and all of its nearly 100,000 students.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Students-will-be-tracked-via-chips-in-IDs-3584339.php#ixzz1vx3CzTU2

KENNEDYVILLE, Md. (WJZ)– A disturbing discovery on an Eastern Shore farm. The bodies of a father and his two teenage sons were found in an animal waste pond. It appears to be a tragic accident that has rocked the Kennedyville community in Kent County.

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Politicians man, straight up Megalomaniacs…

Since the alternates were identified last Thursday, it has been impossible to ignore the dynamic between Edwards and one of the female alternates, an attractive young woman with jet-black hair, who seems to have been flirting with Edwards for days.

The juror clearly instigated the exchanges. She smiles at him.   He smiles  politely back at her.    She giggles.     He blushes.

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Has it really had to come to this?

“Condoms might be considered commonplace in New York City high schools — just last year 680,000 were distributed to students — but a principal’s plan to make them available at the prom on June 7 is raising some eyebrows.”

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Bank Run MUCH…..?

Ángel de la Peña, a Spanish government worker, is seriously considering the once unthinkable: converting some of his savings from euros to British pounds.

Alvaro Saavedra Lopez, a senior executive for I.B.M. in Spain, says many of his corporate counterparts across the country are similarly looking for safer havens by transferring their spare cash to stronger euro zone countries like Germany “on a daily basis.”

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In an interview in The Daily Telegraph, Theresa May says “work is ongoing” to restrict European immigration in the event of a financial collapse.

People from throughout the EU, with the exception of new member countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, are able to work anywhere in the single market.

However, there are growing concerns that if Greece was forced to leave the euro, it would effectively go bankrupt and millions could lose their jobs and consider looking for work abroad.

The crisis could spread quickly to other vulnerable countries such as Spain, Ireland and Portugal, although Britain is regarded as a safe haven because it is outside the single currency.

Details of the contingency plan emerged as the euro crisis deepened further yesterday.

HOLY SHIT! This actually makes sense!

The US government is easing the airport screening process for travelers 75 and older, beginning to roll out new rules just in time for the long Memorial Day holiday weekend, an official said Friday.

From this weekend the elderly will no longer have to doff shoes, belts and jackets as they pass through security checkpoints at New York’s three major airports: John F. Kennedy International, La Guardia, and Newark Liberty.

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Ummmm….I think his campaign press secretary, Mr. Labot, is absolutely bat shit crazy.

“No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for President highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization,” said Mr. LaBolt.  ”The President has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink of another depression, manufacturing and the auto industry revived, and support his agenda to build an economy that lasts where America outinnovates and outeducates the rest of the world and economic security for the middle class is restored.”

The rest of the madness here