Congratulations, you’ve made it this far through Monday. Now here is some afternoon reading to get you through the rest of the day.

Obama Left in the Dark — The Hill’s Jonathan Easley reports that White House Press Sec. Jay Carney said today that though White House officials were notified of an inspector general report on the IRS by the Treasury Department, President Obama was not. Carney said he supports the decision of White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler’s decision not to disclose the report, saying it would have been inappropriate for the President to be involved in an ongoing investigation, as conclusions often change in the final stages of inspector general reports.

Prosecuting the Press — Politico’s Josh Gerstein examines Attorney General Eric Holder’s stance on prosecuting journalists. Though Holder rejected the idea in last week’s hearing, Gerstein explains that the Justice Department has used the possibility of prosecution to obtain warrants. Citing the case of Fox News’ James Rosen, reported in the WaPo article above, the piece looks at how the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 has been interpreted and which protocols were followed and which were overstepped.

DOJ Deja Vu — The DOJ subpoena is being labeled a major scandal for the Obama administration, but as WaPo’s Ann Marimow reports, it’s not the first time this happened. The piece tells the story of the eerily similar tracking a few years ago of Fox News reporter James Rosen by the Justice Department, which was investigating leaks about North Korea in 2009. In addition to phone records, the DOJ made use of security badge access records to track when Rosen came and went to the State Department as well as his personal emails.

IRS Not Alone in Conservative Targeting — Apparently, the IRS wasn’t the only government agency targeting conservative groups. According to the story by The Daily Caller’s Michael Bastasch, the EPA made acquisition of government records more difficult for conservative groups while giving preferential treatment to environmental groups. Republican lawmakers are now launching an investigation into the claims.

The non-endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney by rapper Nicki Minaj was picked up by Washington’s famed gossip pages such as Washington Examiner‘s Yeas & Nays, Politico CLICK and The Hill‘s In the Know. So who wrote it best?

Some background: Last week a song by rapper Lil’ Wayne made its way online, featuring a verse by Minaj. “I’m a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/You lazy b*tches is f***ing up the economy,” Minaj raps. It was reported (with some skepticism) as an unlikely endorsement of Romney. President Obama was asked about the possible endorsement in a radio interview. “I’m not sure that’s actually what happened,,” Obama said. “She likes to play different characters.” Minaj wrote on Twitter that same day, “Thank you for understanding my creative humor & sarcasm Mr. President… *sends love & support*”

CLICK- Caitlin McDevitt had her writeup published first. She was not, however, the first reporter on her own site to break the news. She picked it up from her colleague Byron Tau who writes for the Politico 44 blog. The lede: “Nicki Minaj was being sarcastic when she rapped about voting for Mitt Romney, POLITICO 44 reports.”

Yeas & Nays- The Examiner‘s Jenny Rogers had her item on the story up three hours later. We like the conversational lede (“OK, so maybe Nicki Minaj didn’t endorse the Romney-Ryan ticket after all”).

In the Know- Last to the ball was The Hill’s writeup by Jonathan Easley. It was published nearly five hours after CLICK’s, one and a half after Yeas & Nays’. But there’s an extra bit of information on Minaj added to The Hill‘s writeup. We learn here that Minaj is “rumored to be a new judge on American Idol.” What’s more, when Easley tweeted out the link to his story, he included lyrics to the song “Monster” which also features Minaj. “Nicki Minaj finally puts Romney endorsement flap to bed,” Easley wrote. “Also, her money so tall that her body gotta climb it.” The tweet was retweeted 22 times and favorited twice. He tells us, however, that he’s not really a big fan. “The primary reason I know her stuff is because I’m a big Kanye West fan,” he said. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of my favorite albums, and Minaj absolutely killed it on that ‘Monster’ track.”

Winner: Easley’s lede could have used a little punch (“Rapper Nicki Minaj on Monday ended the dispute over whether she endorsed Mitt Romney in a song released last week”) but for demonstrating prowess on the subject of Minaj, we conclude that Easley wrote it best.