When Jay-Z and Beyonce became the subject of a White House press conference, the politics of spring in Washington must be on hand.

As Jay-Z laid down a rap about his family’s controversial trip to Cuba, the cherry blossom trees bloomed back home, here, in D.C. Here are the political issues that bloomed this week on Capitol Hill:

John Kerry to South Korea: In the continuing saga of “Will He or Won’t He?” North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un is leading the headlines over his threat to fire a nuclear missile. Secretary of State John Kerry is in South Korea and said Friday it would be a “huge mistake” if North Korea launches a nuclear-armed missile. The world awaits North Korea’s next moves, but Kerry and South Korea’s allies believe much of North Korea’s tough talk cannot be backed by an actual successful attack. This followed a meltdown on Capitol Hill after Rep. David Lamborn (R-CO) revealed classified information that is believed to have been mistakenly labeled as unclassified information, saying the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has “moderate confidence” that North Korea has nuclear-armed missiles.
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By State of the Union Intern Vaughn Hillyard

There is no shortage of stories dominating the news this week, but what will be leading the headlines on Sunday morning?

With one week away from the sequester deadline – or what we prefer to call the start of automatic spending cuts – we’ll look into what we should expect for the week ahead on Capitol Hill. And particularly, if March 1 passes without a deal, is the country truly in for a crisis situation? Or is Congress trying to compete with Lincoln for Sunday night’s Oscars?

There’s little activity around the Capitol, this week. Congress is on recess, leaving the visitor center staff, the interns and us on hand.

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