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PBC News & Comment: Depositors Panic as EU Grabs Cash from Savings Accounts

Ruthless EU bankers impose tax up to 9.99% on savings accounts, prompting predictable panic withdrawals in Cyprus over weekend...PBC compares this austerity measure with Obama's willingness to trim Social Security benefits to appease Republicans

--good news: SF federal judge rules that FBI national security letters cannot include gag provision

--more good news: influential DC Court of Appeals rules that CIA can't pretend the drone program is a secret

--VA backlog makes vets wait over 600 days to confirm benefits

--Pentagon will drop its missile defense fantasy for Europe

--Pentagon wants to expand missile defense fantasy for N. Korea

--Obama names Justice Dept. official Tom Perez new Labor Secretary

--Miami grand jury is investigating Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) for influence peddling as Dominican cops say prostitutes were paid to lie about Menendez for video

--Syria bombs Lebanon as Obama prepares to visit Israel and Palestine

--U of Tennessee announces plan to study fracking impact by offering leases in pristine Cumberland Forest

--natural gas pipeline fire rages, 30 miles south of New Orleans

--San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's double standard:  housing director accused of official misconduct is permitted to retire, hopes to keep pension, while Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was subjected to 9-month effort to terminate him for misconduct that occurred before he took office