LUXEMBOURG (AP) — European Union finance ministers grappled Tuesday with how to support their struggling banks and ensure that failing financial institutions don't have the power to drag down entire countries with them.

Two-thirds of the $50 million spent on Mitt Romney’s behalf in Ohio has come from outside “super PACs” and other so-called independent groups, and yet Mr. Romney has lagged behind in all of the major Ohio polls. Hundreds of millions in third-party spending from unlimited checks, much of it from undisclosed donors, has also failed to give Mr. Romney a clear lead in any of the other swing states.      

The New York City Police Department has come under criticism in recent years for arresting people for trespassing in public housing, often for little or no reason. The trespassing arrests are a variation on the city’s broader, and highly controversial, stop-and-frisk program. On Thursday, Judge Shira Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan added her voice to the chorus, ruling that a lawsuit challenging police arrests for trespassing in public housing could move closer to trial.

If anyone had doubts about the madness that has spread through a large part of the American political spectrum, the reaction to Friday’s better-than expected report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics should have settled the issue. For the immediate response of many on the right — and we’re not just talking fringe figures — was to cry conspiracy.