EXCLUSIVE:  Rick Welts, CEO of the NBA team Phoenix Suns, is the first prominent male pro sports executive to reveal he's gay.

Former New York City prosecutor Paul Callan looks at what's ahead in the sexual assault case against IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. FULL POST

EXCLUSIVE:  French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy defends friend Dominique Strauss-Kahn, saying he's not the man depicted in media.

CLICK HERE to read Lévy's column, defending Strauss-Kahn. FULL POST

In our "They Got Away With It" segment, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi and mortgage finance analyst Joshua Rosner discuss a new probe of three major banks for their alleged role in the mortgage crisis.

CLICK HERE to read Eliot Spitzer's take on the investigation.

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s OFF-SET questions is Harold Camping, 89, President of Family Stations, Inc.

Camping received a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1942. In 1958, after managing a construction business, Camping, along with two others, formed the non-profit ministry of Family Stations, Inc., a Christian educational network. In 1961, Family Radio began the Open Forum program, a live weeknight call-in program hosted by Camping, and broadcast on the more than 140 stations owned by Family Radio in the U.S., and heard worldwide via shortwave and a network of AM/FM stations.

Based on your study of the Bible, you have determined that May 21, 2011 is Judgment Day–that God will completely destroy the Earth. What do you predict will happen as clocks turn to 6 pm?

We cannot say emphatically that it’s 6 pm. There’s a lot of information that looks at the probability of 6 pm in any city in the world–when that great earthquake will occur. It could be that it might be just one great earthquake, but there is enough evidence in the Bible that says it will begin at one point in the world, and it could be at 6 pm—that’s a great possibility. Then as it gets to be May 21 in any other country—there will be a great earthquake there.

But we know absolutely, without any shadow of a doubt, that May 21 will be the day.

How are you feeling right now?

Well, I am trembling. I have never been at this place before. When we are only a few days away from the last thing that has to happen—the whole world destroyed by God–I have never been here before. Where can you get direction so you know how to feel? FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s six OFF-SET questions are Henry Velandia and Josh Vandiver of Princeton, New Jersey.  On May 6, an immigration judge temporarily halted Velendia’s deportation.

Last year, Velandia, a dancer from Venezuela, and Vandiver, a Princeton graduate student, were legally married in Connecticut. But under federal law—the Defense of Marriage Act—immigration authorities don’t recognize same-sex marriages and Velandia was denied legal residency in the United States. But Judge Alberto J. Riefkohl granted an adjournment in Newark’s Immigration Court, according to Advocate.com, mentioning “the possibility that the definition of marriage may be changed or amended.”

Were you able to celebrate the judge’s ruling?

JOSH: We breathed a huge sigh of relief.  We came very close to having our marriage destroyed.  The judge could have issued a deportation order on that day.  If Henry had been deported, we would have been separated for a minimum of ten years.

I can’t describe how it feels to sit in a court room and face a judge who could deport your spouse.  I felt sick to my stomach.  I couldn’t believe this was happening in America.  The spouse of an American was about to be deported simply because we are a gay couple.

HENRY: I was able to breathe again. We had a special dinner that night with my mom and close friends, but we know that the storm just got quiet.  There is much more to come and we need to be ready.

Why are heterosexual bi-national couples protected under immigration laws, but same-sex couples are not?

J: It is a very straightforward process for heterosexual bi-national couples to stay together.  FULL POST

Today’s Number of the Day is 3.

That’s the number of very big banks now being investigated by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

In today’s New York Times, reporter Gretchen Morgenson writes that Schneiderman has requested information from and meetings with:  Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley–concerning how their mortgage security businesses operated during the credit boom. He’s investigating how the banks bundled thousands of home loans into securities that were then sold to pension and mutual funds, and insurance companies.

Schneiderman, a former New York State Senator, was elected to his position as New York’s highest-ranking law enforcement officer in Nov. 2020. (I was New York’s Attorney General from 1999-2006.)

Morgenson reports that it’s not clear exactly what activities Schneiderman is investigating. For instance, did the banks mislead investors about the value of the mortgages that had been bundled into those securities? Did they know the loans were doomed to fail? Did they trade against their clients?

It’s unclear if the attorney general will pursue civil or criminal cases against the banks, if he does so at all.

One way or another, I bet there will be bombshells awaiting us. FULL POST

Miami (CNN) - Two southern Florida imams accused of supporting the Pakistani Taliban appeared briefly in a Miami federal court Monday, before a judge pushed back the legal proceedings into next week so the suspects could sort out their legal representation. The two men - Hafiz Khan and his son Izhar Khan - were arrested Saturday in South Florida, the Justice Department said.

Another of Hafiz Khan's sons, Irfan Khan, was arrested that same day in El Segundo, California. Later Monday, he likewise remained in federal custody after putting off entering a plea during his own initial court appearance at the Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles. Three others in Pakistan also have been indicted: Khan's daughter Amina Khan, Khan's grandson Alam Zeb and Ali Rehman.  All six defendants face a four-count indictment that alleges they conspired to provide material support to a conspiracy to kill, injure and kidnap people abroad. It also alleges that they provided support to the Pakistani Taliban.

The indictment describes a number of occasions when Hafiz Khan transferred money to Pakistan. "Khan solicited and distributed funds for the Pakistani Taliban, both personally and on behalf of others, and worked with the co-defendants and others to support the Pakistani Taliban's jihad," the indictment says. The court documents also state there were several conversations between Hafiz Khan and the other defendants in which Hafiz Khan called for attacks against the Pakistani government and asked whether money had been delivered to the Pakistani Taliban.

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Asad Ba-Yunus, Legal Advisor to The Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations, is an association of Muslim individuals that supports Muslim communities, and develops educational, social and outreach programs for the South Florida Muslim community and society at large.

When you heard about the federal indictments, what were your immediate thoughts?

My first thoughts immediately after learning of the arrests (I learned of the indictments shortly afterwards) was to figure out who and why. We were not even sure whether it was the FBI or ICE/DHS who arrested them, until one of the community's leaders received a call from the FBI's to advise us of the morning's events.

I immediately sent messages to the U.S. Attorney and some of his top staff to try and get information, and was delightfully surprised to receive an immediate response from the U.S. Attorney himself, as well as a phone call shortly after where the entire indictment was explained to me by Mr. Ferrer, and he promised his office's cooperation and support of the Muslim community in dealing with any backlash and retaliation that may occur. FULL POST

Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Richard Viguerie, known as the “Funding Father of the conservative movement." He transformed American politics in the 1960s and ’70s by pioneering the use of direct mail fundraising in the political and ideological spheres.

According to the American Freedom Agenda website, Viguerie’s advertising firm has mailed more than 2 billion letters over the past 42 years. He is author of the book, “Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.”

Last Friday, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) announced that he will run for his party's presidential nomination in 2012. He has run twice before. What do you think he has learned from those two experiences?

Ron Paul isn’t running to be President, although he probably would like to be.  His obvious goal is to use the microphone that a national presidential campaign would give him to 1) educate people regarding his views 2) provide leadership to the Libertarian cause.

Last week, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich also announced his candidacy for President of the United States. What voters might he appeal to?

Gingrich’s brief presidential campaign is closely following his political career of the last 30 plus years of being unguided, unfocused and unpredictable.  He did serious harm (probably fatal) to his presidential campaign this weekend by referring to right-wing extremism, approving personal mandates and attacking the “Sainted” Paul Ryan. FULL POST

YET ANOTHER U.S. PRESIDENT ATTEMPTS BRINGING PEACE TO THE MIDDLE EAST – Uprisings in the Middle East and the Palestinian-Israeli peace process are expected to comprise a large portion of President Barack Obama's agenda this week.

He is scheduled to meet in Washington with Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. Parts of those discussions are expected to center on Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. This week's meetings come days after former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell resigned as Obama's Mideast envoy. Mitchell was assigned to keep the peace talks on track. They also come on the heels of Sunday's deadly clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces Sunday.

Obama on Thursday is set to deliver an address on U.S. policy regarding the "Arab Spring" uprisings that have shaken governments in North Africa and the Middle East.  FULL POST