…And the World:

We begin today in Israel, where the death of three Israeli teens continues to rock the situation there. Following the teens’ death, for which Israel has blamed Hamas, a Palestinian was brutally murdered in an attack Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “abhorrent.” Six Israelis have been arrested for that crime and Haaretz reports three have confessed. Meanwhile the political landscape has been rocked as well.

The Los Angeles Times report on Netanyahu’s response noted that Bibi is resisting a broad offensive into Gaza in response to rocket fire from there. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s party is splitting from its marriage with Netanyahu’s Likud. Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog says the prime minister’s governing coalition is on the edge of collapse and some of its members should bail to form a center-left government.

In Ukraine, the army there is making gains on separatists after President Petro Poroshenko ended the unsuccessful ceasefire. The government seized a key town over the weekend.

Iraq fails to name a Parliamentary speaker or form a government, complicating its political crisis further.

In Africa potpourri: Egypt’s new president regrets that journalists were tried for at all, possibly laying the groundwork for a pardon.As many as 60 women and girls may have escaped from the Nigeria-based Boko Haram extremist group, although hundred more remain captured.

Is ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy the target of a vast left-wing conspiracy?

The Feds:

From a strictly procedural standpoint, it may be too soon to tell, but the Supreme Court’s decision to order lower courts to revisit ostensibly distinguishable birth control cases casts doubt on the limits of its Hobby Lobby decision.

In case you missed it, John Boehner had an Op-Ed about his “lawsuit” against President Obama’s relatively few executive actions. That he need explanation betrays how much of a reach it is. The White House Counsel is not worried and some Dems are happy.

Ever wondered how press flacking works? Jon Lender at The Hartford Courant breaks down one such example in Connecticut with Gov. Dan Malloy’s Communications Director Andrew Doba.

The Washington Post says the NSA’s data collection programs sweeps in and retains more info than the agency claims.

The New York Times profiles Domenic Recchia, the Democratic opponent to Republican US Rep. Michael Grimm who faces federal charges for fraud.

Students are getting in on the suit challenging North Carolina’s new, onerous voter screening laws.

The State of Things:

Boston, often touted as a  paradigm of success for residency ordinances for city employees, has a problem. Their residency ordinance does not work very well, although officials are looking to do better. This blog is agnostic about residency, but remember this.

In better news, “Mahty” announced the city’s new Fire Commissioner. Mayor Marty Walsh has tapped Joseph Finn, the city’s longest serving chief to the top job at the Fire Department of New England’s largest city.

With Eric Suher’s surrender of a liquor license to Northampton authorities, Mary Serreze describes the jockeying for one of the city’s coveted pouring permits. This substantially lowers the financial barriers for would-be mixologist entrepreneurs who can obtain the license for much less from the city directly than it would buying an existing license directly from the previous holder.

Gov. Deval Patrick is in Springfield to sign a gas leak bill intended to protect the commonwealth’s natural gas infrastructure following reports on their condition and the 2011 explosion in the city.

Our report on the campaign of Ludlow School Committee member Chip Harrington, whose brand at home may be granting him the liberty to grind out progress elsewhere in the district.

In local personnel: Holyoke inks new three contract with Police Chief and Westside hires a new City Solicitor.

The Fourth Estatements:

Dave Weigel at Slate.com points out the eighth, ninth, tenth, er, umpteenth time the media has declared some event or another “Obama’s Katrina.” Even Hurricane Katrina was not, in itself, Bush’s Katrina, but one in a series of catastrophic setbacks for George the Younger in 2005. None are of Obama’s problems are of the same scale as Katrina, but the media just can’t help themselves.

WGBH is one of the homes of the Muzzle Awards this year. The public official awards are written by Northeastern Journalism professor and blogger Dan Kennedy.

City Slickers:

The head of the Springfield Business Improvement District lays out the groups three-year plan ahead of expected impacts from I-91 construction and the impact of a casino, if built.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno was asked to write the opposition summary to the casino-repeal legislation. He was flattered, but declined.

Reconstruction of a major intersection in East Forest Park to begin today.

Twitter Chatter:

Sometimes it seems like the Beltway Media gets caught in its own feedback loop so bad that some on the left AND the right of opinion-based media go into a total facepalm. Among the more tired tropes about the Obama presidency are declarations of the president’s latest Katrina. It gets embarrassing at times and serves to show how often times journalism is the problem. Obligatory note of self-awareness: we endorsed the president for reelection and fully stand by that decision. But when even the center-right is exasperated, maybe it is time for the phrase’s retirement.  Today we award the tweet prize to Justin Green of the Washington Examiner, who’s humorous, but somewhat spot-on dig at the latest overuse of “Obama’s Katrina” shows how ridiculous it has become.