State and National News

Adam "MCA" Yauch, one of the founding members of the Beastie Boys, died Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 47.

With his raspy voice, Yauch started making music with Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) when they were all teenagers in New York City in the early 1980s. The Beastie Boys started out as a punk band, but in 1987, the group released Licensed to Ill, the first hop-hop album to reach No. 1 on the pop charts.

Lena Dunham was just 23 years old when her second feature film, Tiny Furniture, won the best narrative feature prize at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The movie's success led to Dunham striking a deal with HBO for a comedy series about a group of 20-something girls navigating New York City.

By saying Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press that he is "absolutely comfortable" with equal rights for partners in same-sex marriages and that love is at the root of all marriages "whether they're marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals," Vice President Biden has set off speculation about whether the Obama administration may soon fully endorse same-sex marriage.

Here is a link to an interesting piece in Science on the psychology of faith. The question raised relates to the cognitive basis for one's sense of religious belief. As the article states:

When musician friends come together in an informal setting, they don't typically expect more than a good time. But when these meetings result in ongoing collaborations, it's an exciting spectacle.

The mystery surrounding the death of Army Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark, who collapsed on April 30 while on a Skype call from Afghanistan to his wife back in the U.S., has deepened.

Need a Monday morning pick-me-up? Animal Collective has just posted two new songs on its website and you can listen now. "Honeycomb" is the bouncy one with the trademark harmonies. "Gotham" is the comparatively pensive one with lots of echo.

Dave Zirin is the sports editor for The Nation magazine.

"Born and bred Brooklyn U.S.A. They call me Adam Yauch but I'm M.C.A."

In the '60s they said, "don't trust anyone over 30." When it comes to remembering Adam "MCA" Yauch, who died on May 4, I don't trust anyone under 30. Adam Yauch and the Beastie Boys stood for more than just hip hop and their personal "sounds of science." They repped the soul of a city that no longer exists.

Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.

President Obama is breaking new ground in his campaign for re-election. He is going where incumbent presidents have never gone before. He is doing things for which President George W. Bush would have been pilloried. And Obama is doing all this in plain view.