--EXCLUSIVE: Alcoa’s Jake Siewert, White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, has worked out details and will join Treasury in early June as “senior counselor” or “senior adviser” to Secretary Geithner. Eventually, Treasury will bring in an assistant secretary who will handle press-public affairs.

--EXCLUSIVE: President Obama plans a national security speech for later in the week to try to bring some CONTEXT to photos, Gitmo, torture. But don’t call it “the Gitmo speech” – the point is to elevate the coverage/conversation. This is like the president’s remarks on the economy at Georgetown on April 14, where he lays out a complicated issue for the American people. It pulls everything together since Americans don’t catch every pool spray, etc.

--Financial Times p. 1, “Lawmakers plot finance shakeup: Congress will next month start the biggest regulatory overhaul of the US financial system in decades, bringing into the open a frantic lobbying effort between banks, regulators and policymakers on what it contains and who pays for it. The House financial services committee, chaired by Democrat Barney Frank, will hold hearings early in June into reforms outlined by Timothy Geithner, Treasury secretary, say people familiar with the timetable. But the complexity, coupled with a crowded legislative agenda, means one key pillar – a resolution authority allowing a regulator to seize a failing bank holding company – is not likely to be put in place until year-end.”

--AFP, “Sri Lanka declares final victory over Tiger rebels,” by Amal Jayasinghe, in Colombo, the capital: “Sri Lanka's military declared a final victory Monday in its decades-old conflict with the Tamil Tigers, after routing the remnants of the rebel army and killing its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. … [The] statement marked the end of one of Asia's oldest and most brutal ethnic conflicts which left more than 70,000 dead from pitched battles, suicide attacks, bomb strikes and assassinations. … Officials said all rebel leaders were now dead.”

Sri Lanka = island in the Indian Ocean, south of India.

--AFP’s Mel Gunasekera, in Colombo: “The final defeat of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers has brought an end to one of the world's most brutal ethnic conflicts and the demise of one of its most formidable and disciplined rebel outfits. Just two years ago, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appeared indestructible, controlling a large swath of territory in the north and east of the island with all the trappings of a separate state. Formed by Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tigers spent more than 30 years confounding expectations of their military defeat, but a sustained offensive by government troops saw them cornered, broken and finally vanquished.”

--Bill Kristol stirs the Pelosi pot at “PostPartisan.”

--SPOTTED on shuttles yesterday from Boston to D.C.: Adam Nagourney, Daniel Schorr (reading The Washington Post), Griffin Harris, John F. Harris and Jonathan Martin.

--Ask Jake Levine for his autograph (everyone else is).

--Ask Doug Heye for tips on break-dancing at weddings. (Better yet, GIVE Doug Heye tips on break-dancing at weddings.)

--PUNDIT PREP – AP Broadcast, “Janet Napolitano Pronunciation Advisory … Janet Napolitano (neh-pahl-ih-TAN'-oh). The fourth syllable sounds like ‘tan,’ as in ‘suntan.’ Her press office confirms that this is the way the secretary herself pronounces her name.”

--L.A. Times A1, “Industry warms up to Obama’s climate plan: Companies want to help shape global warming legislation in Congress, figuring the right plan could boost profits,” by Jim Tankersley: “[A] growing number of coal users have come to believe that, with the right tweaks, Obama's plan would not only help the environment but boost their profits. … Politically, the decision to get behind the broad outlines of climate legislation mirrors the push by insurers and pharmaceutical companies to remake the nation's healthcare system: In both cases, corporate strategists concluded that some government action was likely, and they might fare better at the table than on the sidelines. ‘Many leaders in both areas are willing to break out of what has been conventional wisdom, and as a result we've been able to build coalitions of CEOs,’ said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee who co-wrote the House version of Obama's climate plan. Companies such as Alcoa and Duke Energy, the nation's largest producer of electricity generated by burning coal, have been marshaling votes on Capitol Hill, working behind the scenes with committee negotiators and providing what House leaders call a blueprint for compromise. Alcoa is a charter member of the United States Climate Action Partnership, a collection of large environmental groups, utilities, manufacturers and other big businesses. Two coalition members -- the Environmental Defense Fund and Duke Energy -- last week launched a television advertising blitz in support of warming legislation.” 

--A GREAT PASSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT’S NOTRE DAME SPEECH THAT YOU DIDN’T SEE ON TV: “Unfortunately, finding that common ground -- recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a ‘single garment of destiny’ -- is not easy. And part of the problem, of course, lies in the imperfections of man -- our selfishness, our pride, our stubbornness, our acquisitiveness, our insecurities, our egos; all the cruelties large and small that those of us in the Christian tradition understand to be rooted in original sin. We too often seek advantage over others. We cling to outworn prejudice and fear those who are unfamiliar. Too many of us view life only through the lens of immediate self-interest and crass materialism; in which the world is necessarily a zero-sum game. The strong too often dominate the weak, and too many of those with wealth and with power find all manner of justification for their own privilege in the face of poverty and injustice. And so, for all our technology and scientific advances, we see here in this country and around the globe violence and want and strife that would seem sadly familiar to those in ancient times.”

-- Carl Lavin points out that the original context of the president’s “single garment of destiny” line is Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham jail”: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

--“MORNING” JOE SCARBOROUGH: “I can’t stand when people interrupt the president of the United States – I don’t care what the issue is.”

--When you’re on your desktop: USA Today’s David Jackson has a good look at the administration hitting the commencement circuit (scroll down: at bottom of the day story on “Mixed reception at Notre Dame for Obama”).

--NEW TO TWITTER – the prolific Don “Stew” Stewart, communications director, Office of the Senate Republican Leader -- @StewSays --will be used for updates on the Senate, votes, news, etc.

And don’t forget @mikeallen – we broke both Huntsman and Cutter on Twitter.

TWEET DU JOUR, from @mikemadden: “SuperShuttle dropped someone off 8 blocks from my house, now going across town before taking me. Wouldn't let me out to walk or take bus.”

WE KNOW A PROMINENT POLITICAL REPORTER WHO WOULD HAVE HAD … VAN RAGE. (Is there a watch list for shared-ride providers?)

--BEST COLOR – The Salt Lake Tribune’s Thomas “Tommy the Bull” Burr: “Before Saturday's news conference, the Huntsman family --including his father, billionaire philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr., and mother, Karen -- waited in the adjacent room, coincidentally named the China Room for all its historic dishes. Upon the group's return there after the announcement, Jon Huntsman Sr. told the president how, when he served as an aide to President Richard M. Nixon, then-11-year-old Jon Huntsman Jr. had carried a bag for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to a waiting helicopter. Kissinger, it turns out, was embarking on the first high-level visit of a U.S. official to mainland China in decades, and the beginning of a new era of U.S.-Chinese relations. The president, according to those present, then told Huntsman he would have the favor returned. ‘When you leave,’ Obama reportedly said, ‘I'll get Doctor Kissinger to carry your bags to the plane.’”

BUSINESS BURST -- Financial Times lead story, “$24B gap identified at smaller US lenders: Small and medium-sized US banks must raise some $24B to meet the capital standards set by the government in its stress tests of large institutions, research for the Financial Times shows. … As many as 500 more banks could close, according to investment bank Sandler O’Neill, which carried out the research … The government’s stress-case would result in capital shortfalls for 38 per cent of the 200 banks below the 19 largest financial institutions.”

SPORTS BLINK – AP: “Nothing fires up Michael Phelps like a loss. Well, he's got two of them to stew over. Phelps lost for the second night in a row when Frederick Bousquet blew him away in the 100-meter freestyle Sunday, the final event of the Charlotte UltraSwim. Even though Phelps kept switching up his stroke in a desperate bid to keep up with the flying Frenchman, it wasn't close at the end.”

DESSERT – Hollywood Reporter: “CBS renews ‘Cold Case’ for seventh season: CBS on Sunday renewed the veteran crime drama ‘Cold Case,’ which had been facing cancellation, and was close to bringing back ‘Rules of Engagement,’ possibly again for midseason. Over the past few months, ‘Case’ had been in a horse race with fellow crime show ‘Without a Trace’ for a spot on next season's schedule. ‘Case’ is in its sixth season, and ‘Trace’ in its seventh. Both series posted ratings upticks this month, ‘Cold Case’ with an episode featuring Pearl Jam tunes.”

**From the U.S. Travel Association: Travel is one of America’s most important engines of economic growth and a critical component to our nation’s economic recovery. It employs one out of every eight Americans, drives $740 billion in spending and generates $115 billion in tax revenues for vibrant communities across the country.

Standing up for travel – and the millions of Americans who work in this industry – has never been more important. This week, thousands of industry members in more than 30 cities are commemorating National Travel and Tourism Week with rallies promoting the value of travel. To learn more about travel in America and communities like yours, visit www.poweroftravel.org and www.meetingsmeanbusiness.com. **