LOS ANGELES – “Star Trek: Into Darkness” has warped its way to a $70.6 million domestic launch from Friday to Sunday, though it’s not setting any light-speed records with a debut that’s lower than the studio’s expectations.

The latest voyage of the starship Enterprise fell short of its predecessor, 2009′s “Star Trek,” which opened with $75.2 million.

Since premiering Wednesday in huge-screen IMAX theaters and expanding Thursday to general cinemas, “Into Darkness” has pulled in $84.1 million, well below distributor Paramount’s initial forecast of $100 million. The film added $40 million overseas, pushing its total to $80.5 million since it began rolling out internationally a week earlier.

The “Star Trek” sequel bumped “Iron Man 3″ down to second place after two weekends on top. Robert Downey Jr.’s superhero saga took in $35.2 million domestically to lift its receipts to $337.1 million. Overseas, “Iron Man 3″ added $40.2 million, raising its international total to $736.2 million and its worldwide tally to nearly $1.1 billion.

While “Iron Man 3″ and “Into Darkness” did well overseas, they were outmatched by the debut of Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby,” which followed its domestic debut a week earlier with a wide rollout internationally. “Gatsby” pulled in $42.1 million overseas, coming in a bit ahead of both “Iron Man 3″ and “Into Darkness.”

Domestically, “Gatsby” held up well at No. 3 with $23.4 million, lifting its total to $90.2 million.

In today’s Hollywood of bigger, better sequels, follow-up films often outdo the box office of their predecessors, as each “Iron Man” sequel has done. While “Into Darkness” earned good reviews and is getting strong word-of-mouth from fans, the film did not quite measure up to the opening weekend of director J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” reboot from four years ago, at least domestically.

“‘Star Trek’ remains a fan-boy movie. It doesn’t seem to have the same kind of cross-over appeal as say an `Iron Man’ or some of these others,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. “It’s a very specific brand, but I think the general public would love this movie, because it’s such an action movie. But to get a hundred-million-plus opening weekend, unless you’re `Twilight,’ you really have to cross over to all audiences.”

Paramount points out that overseas business is up in many markets, though, so that worldwide, the sequel is off to a better start.

“Because of the nature of the franchise, because of how many movies have been made and the various forms of the TV shows, I’m not sure that `Star Trek’ goes by the rules of normal sequels. I think each movie stands on its own, because it’s a unique franchise,” said Don Harris, Paramount’s head of distribution. “My goal was always that we grow the franchise. We’re clearly seeing by today’s numbers that the movie is being embraced on a worldwide basis in a way we’ve never seen before.”

Harris said that domestically, “Into Darkness” finished its first weekend 6 percent ahead of revenues for 2009′s “Star Trek,” which got a head-start with $4 million in Thursday night previews to give it a $79.2 million haul through the first Sunday.

But “Into Darkness” had a full day of screenings Thursday plus its Wednesday IMAX business. Unlike the first movie, which played only in 2-D, the sequel also had the benefit of 3-D screenings that cost a few dollars more. Yet even with the 3-D upcharge and the earlier debut, it came away with just $4.9 million more than its predecessor through Sunday.

Still, it’s a solid starting place for the movie to live long and prosper at theaters, with Paramount hoping “Into Darkness” can surpass the $385 million worldwide total of “Star Trek.”

“I think we’re well along on that road,” Harris said.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” $70.6 million ($40 million international).

2. “Iron Man 3,” $35.2 million ($40.2 million international).

3. “The Great Gatsby,” $23.4 million ($42.1 million international)

4. “Pain & Gain,” $3.1 million.

5. “The Croods,” $2.75 million.

6. “42,” $2.73 million.

7. “Oblivion,” $2.2 million.

8. “Mud,” $2.16 million.

9. “Peeples,” $2.15 million.

10. “The Big Wedding,” $1.1 million.

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Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. “The Great Gatsby,” $42.1 million.

2. “Iron Man 3,” $40.2 million.

3. “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” $40 million.

4. “Epic,” $14.5 million.

5. “Fast & Furious 6,” $13.8 million.

6. “The Croods,” $10.6 million.

7. “Evil Dead,” $5.6 million.

8. “Oblivion,” $4.7 million.

9. “Montage,” $4.1 million.

10. “Mama,” $1.7 million.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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ATLANTA – President Barack Obama, in a soaring commencement address on work, sacrifice and opportunity, on Sunday told graduates of historically black Morehouse College to seize the power of their example as black men graduating from college and use it to improve people’s lives.

Noting the Atlanta school’s mission to cultivate, not just educate, good men, Obama said graduates should not be so eager to join the chase for wealth and material things, but instead should remember where they came from and not “take your degree and get a fancy job and nice house and nice car and never look back.”

“So yes, go get that law degree. But if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and powerful, or if you can also find time to defend the powerless,” Obama said. “Sure, go get your MBA, or start that business, we need black businesses out there. But ask yourself what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood.”

“The most successful CEOs I know didn’t start out intent on making money, rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed,” he said.

For those headed to medical school, Obama said “make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it, too.”

Before Obama arrived in Atlanta, thunderstorms drenched hundreds of people who gathered on the campus lawn for the outdoor ceremony, forcing many guests to wear clear plastic ponchos over what amounted to their Sunday-best clothes. Rain began falling again, accompanied by more thunder and lightning, minutes after Obama began to speak.

“I also have to say you all are going to get wet,” he said. “I would be out there with you if I could. But Secret Service gets nervous, so I’m going to have to stay here, dry. But know that I’m with you in spirit.”

Obama urged graduates to “inspire those who look up to you to expect more of themselves.”

Obama used the speech to once again share his personal story of growing up without a father, confessing that along the way he made unspecified bad personal choices “like too many men in our community.”

“Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down,” he said. “I had a tendency to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. But one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is, there’s no longer any room for excuses.”

Speaking in personal terms as he often does when addressing predominantly black audiences, particularly of black males, the nation’s first black president also spoke intimately of his desire to be a better father to daughters Malia and Sasha than his absent father was to him, and to be a better husband to his wife, Michelle.

He told the graduates to pay attention to their families, saying success in every other aspect of life means nothing without success at home.

“I was raised by a heroic single mother and wonderful grandparents who made incredible sacrifices for me. And I know there are moms and grandparents here today who did the same thing for all of you,” he said. “But I still wish I had a father who was not only present, but involved. And so my whole life, I’ve tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father wasn’t for my mother and me. I’ve tried to be a better husband, a better father, and a better man.

“It’s hard work that demands your constant attention, and frequent sacrifice. And Michelle will be the first to tell you that I’m not perfect,” he continued. “Even now, I’m still learning how to be the best husband and father I can be. Because success in everything else is unfulfilling if we fail at family.

“I know that when I’m on my deathbed someday, I won’t be thinking about any particular legislation I passed, or policy I promoted. I won’t be thinking about the speech I gave, or the Nobel Prize I received,” said Obama, 51. “I’ll be thinking about a walk I took with my daughters, a lazy afternoon with my wife, whether I did right by all of them.”

The speech was Obama’s second commencement address of the season, following remarks last Sunday at Ohio State University in Columbus. His third and final graduation address will come Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

About 500 students received undergraduate degrees on Sunday and became “Morehouse Men.”

After the speech, Obama joined about 100 people at a Democratic Senate fundraiser at the Arthur M. Blank Family Office in Atlanta. It was the first of six money events Obama has agreed to headline for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, officials said, as the party recruits candidates and strategizes to keep control of the Senate in midterm elections next year. Six long-serving Democratic senators have decided not to seek re-election. Democrats also will be defending more Senate seats than Republicans next year.

Donors paid anywhere from $10,000 to $32,400 per couple to attend the fundraiser.

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DES MOINES, Iowa – Is the tea party getting its groove back? Shouts of vindication from around the country suggest the movement’s leaders certainly think so.

They say the IRS acknowledgement that it had targeted their groups for extra scrutiny – a claim that tea party activists had made for years – is helping pump new energy into the coalition. And they are trying to use that development, along with the ongoing controversy over the Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attacks and the Justice Department’s secret seizure of journalists’ phone records, to recruit new activists incensed about government overreach.

“This is the defining moment to say `I told you so,’ ” said Katrina Pierson, a Dallas-based tea party leader, who traveled to Washington last week as the three political headaches for President Barack Obama unfolded.

Luke Rogonjich, a tea party leader in Phoenix, called the trio of controversies a powerful confluence that bolsters the GOP’s case against big government. “Suddenly, there are a lot of things pressing on the dam,” said Rogonjich.

It’s unclear whether a movement made up of disparate grassroots groups with no central body can take advantage of the moment and leverage it to grow stronger after a sub-par showing in last fall’s election had called into question the movement’s lasting impact. Republicans and Democrats alike say the tea party runs the risk of going too far in its criticism, which could once again open the door to Democratic efforts to paint it as an extreme arm of the GOP.

“Never underestimate the tea party’s ability to overplay its hand,” said Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee. “Just because there is universal agreement that the IRS went too far, that should not be misread as acceptance of the tea party’s ideology of anger.”

At the very least, furor over the IRS in particular is giving the tea party more visibility than it has had in months, and it’s providing a new rallying cry for tea party organizers starting to plot how to influence the 2014 congressional elections.

The tax-agency scandal – it has led to the acting IRS commissioner’s ouster, a criminal investigation and Capitol Hill hearings – seems to validate the tea party’s long-held belief among supporters that government was trampling on them specifically, a claim dismissed by ousted commissioner Steven T. Miller. He has called the targeting “a mistake and not an act of partisanship.”

Nevertheless, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., elected in 2010 with tea party backing, said the IRS scandal “confirms many of the feelings that led to the tea party movement in the first place.”

“What’s happened here is a reminder of, this is what happens when you expand government,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “That and the disaster that is Obamacare is going to be a real catalyst in 2014 and beyond.”

Tea party activists hope they also can drive support ahead of the elections by stoking widespread suspicions that the Obama administration and State Department are hiding key details about the September 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. The seizure of Associated Press phone records also plays into their argument that government is too intrusive.

Tea party activists have tried to take advantage of the issues that have put some of their central tenets – limited government and civil liberties – in the spotlight.

From around the country last week, they headed Washington to hold a news conference on the Capitol steps and meet with members of Congress. Those who stayed home jammed House and Senate phone lines with calls urging congressional action as the IRS saga unfolded. An email from Teaparty.org that was sent to activists proclaimed: “We’ve worked so hard these past few years and it’s paying off! We’re witnessing the unraveling of a presidency at an unprecedented rate.”

Freedomworks, a national tea party group, spent the week circulating petitions for congressional hearings and encouraging leaders of local groups who believe they have been targeted by the IRS to include their story on a national database to build the case against the agency.

“Perhaps all this attention will break something loose,” said Jim Chiodo, an activist from Holland, Mich.

It wasn’t long ago that the tea party was the hot new political kid on the block, bursting onto the national scene during the contentious summer debate over health care in 2009. Over the next few years, the loosely affiliated conservatives and civil libertarians would leave their mark on the 2010 elections by helping Republican candidates win Senate races in Florida, Kentucky, Utah and Wisconsin and scores of House races.

Those victories resulted in House and Senate Republican caucuses getting pushed to the right in legislative battles, making life difficult for Obama and his Democrats in an era of divided government.

But the movement’s success was muted in 2012 when Republicans nominated the establishment-backed Mitt Romney for president, though he did little to inspire the tea party. He lost, and so did many tea party-backed House and Senate candidates.

Now, tea party activists say they are emboldened and won’t be afraid to recruit candidates to run in Republican primaries against incumbents who appear to go easy on the Obama administration, particularly in light of the IRS scandal.

“It’s one of those issues we should just raise hell about,” said Nashville Tea Party leader Ben Cunningham.

Some say they’re now even more suspicious of government than before.

“I personally feel so vindicated,” said Mark Falzon, a New Jersey tea party leader. But he added: “What’s scaring me now is what’s going on below the water line that we’re not seeing.”

Republicans say that the tea party will have an opportunity come 2014 to make its mark again, particularly with Obama not at the top of the ticket. Also, they say that with Obama’s health care law going into effect and with the slew of latest controversies, they now have concrete issues to point to when arguing against government overreach.

“Suddenly, this is a very real demonstration of too much power ceded to government bureaucrats,” said Matt Kibbe, president of Freedomworks. “This is no longer theoretical.”

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Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in Boston and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Follow Thomas Beaumont on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Tom-Beaumont

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BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Commuter trains damaged in a crash in Connecticut were being removed Sunday in the first step to making repairs and restoring service, the agency that runs Metro-North said.

Aaron Donovan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, gave Metro-North the OK to remove the trains. Hundreds of feet of track need to be repaired, he said.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us, to restore signals and overhead wires,” Donovan said.

Later Sunday, the Connecticut Department of Transportation will announce jointly with Metro-North a plan for the rush-hour commute beginning Monday.

Investigators are looking at a broken section of rail to see if it is connected to the derailment and collision outside Bridgeport that left dozens injured. Seventy-two people were sent to the hospital Friday evening after an eastbound train from New York City derailed and was hit by a westbound train. Nine remain hospitalized.

Service has been suspended between South Norwalk and New Haven, which includes stops at 12 stations.

Donovan compared the loss of service to a “very significant storm.”

Most recently, the Waterbury branch of Metro-North was down immediately after the massive Feb. 9-10 snowstorm that blanketed the Northeast.

Investigators said Saturday that the crash was not the result of foul play, but a fractured section of rail is being studied to determine if it is connected to the accident. National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said the broken rail is of substantial interest to investigators and a portion of the track will be sent to a lab for analysis.

Weener said it’s not clear if the accident caused the fracture or if the rail was broken before the crash. He said he won’t speculate on the cause of the derailment and emphasized the investigation was in its early stages. Officials earlier described devastating damage and said it was fortunate no one was killed.

The crash damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the Northeast Corridor. The crash also caused Amtrak to suspend service between New York and Boston.

NTSB investigators arrived Saturday and are expected to be on site for seven to 10 days. They will look at the brakes and performance of the trains, the condition of the tracks, crew performance and train signal information, among other things.

The MTA operates the Metro-North Railroad, the second-largest commuter railroad in the nation. The Metro-North main lines – the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven – run northward from New York City’s Grand Central Terminal into suburban New York and Connecticut.

The last significant train collision involving Metro-North occurred in 1988 when a train engineer was killed in Mount Vernon, N.Y., when one train empty of passengers rear-ended another, railroad officials said.

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Many of my colleagues in the media on the left and right have bought this argument, notwithstanding its fallacies. Until now.

This past week, we learned that the IRS has targeted for additional scrutiny the tax-exemption applications of groups with whose messages it disagrees.

We also learned that the Department of Justice obtained the personal telephone records of hundreds of reporters and editors employed by The Associated Press without a search warrant issued by a judge.

And during this past week we learned that the White House, the Department of State and the CIA all engaged in a conspiracy of disinformation so that the official version of events of what caused the murders of four Americans at our outpost in Benghazi, Libya, would not impair Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.

The common threads in all of this government secrecy and lying are a general rejection of government’s moral obligation to tell the truth, a disturbing yet brazen willingness to evade and avoid the restrictions the Constitution has deliberately built around government and a glib admission that the government can do as it pleases so long as it can politically get away with it.

The Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause requires that the government treat all similarly situated entities in a similar manner. The Constitution’s First Amendment prohibits the government from using the speech and expressive activities of persons in America as a basis for the disparate treatment of them.

Thus, on its face — that is, on the basis of what the IRS has admitted and without any further investigation — we have violations of these constitutional principles. If the IRS were to examine the applications for tax exemption of Media Matters with the same level of scrutiny as it does with Tea Party Patriots, it would not run afoul of these principles.

But Congress has given the IRS broad latitude to scrutinize the behavior of the taxpayers it chooses to scrutinize, and the IRS has given itself authority to probe, prod and plunder wherever it wishes.

Short of criminal behavior such as bribery or conspiracy, the IRS employees who have singled out applications for tax-exempt status for more scrutiny based on anticipated political expression are subject to removal from office. But they cannot be prosecuted or sued. And Congress is to blame — both Republicans and Democrats have used and abused the IRS to their advantage and neither party inwardly wants laws that will prevent it from doing so in the future.

Is this what you expect of our tax collectors?

The First Amendment also assures the right of professional journalists to seek and protect their sources and it gives them immunity from government prosecution or retribution for truthfully publishing matters of material public interest, even when it involves information stolen from the government. The Supreme Court taught us this in the Pentagon Papers case.

Moreover, the Fourth Amendment requires that if the government wants private information about who stole its secrets, it needs a search warrant from a judge. But the Patriot Act, which was celebrated by some in the media whose telephone records have since been seized, permits federal agents to write their own search warrants when they seek records from a third party like a telephone company and can claim that pursuit of terrorists is at stake.

The Patriot Act makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. When the government chills free speech, we all suffer. Thomas Jefferson preferred newspapers without government to government without newspapers. Whose personal records will the government authorize itself to seize next?

The lesson of Benghazi is that we had no lawful right to interfere in the domestic affairs of the Libyan government. It was unlawful for Obama to bomb Col. Gadhafi without a congressional declaration of war. The organized assault on our consulate was the unintended consequence of us using force to infuse American-style democracy on a people whose culture is unable and unwilling to accept it.

But the president’s people were terrified that the murder of our ambassador to Libya during the 2012 presidential campaign might impair Obama’s re-election chances. So they and he tried to rewrite history. And the more they and he lied, the more they and he needed to lie to cover up their original lies.

Would you retain an employee who lied to you about the deaths of innocents and lied more to cover up the original lies?

Now, back to Bush and Obama and the president’s job. According to the Constitution, the president’s first job obligation is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. According to the Constitution, that means preserving Americans’ freedom first and safety second. Freedom is our natural state and is the ultimate natural right. Safety is a need that we ourselves can provide when unimpeded by the government.

If the president keeps us safe but not free, he is not doing his job. Do you know anyone who feels freer or even any safer because the government trampled personal freedoms and so far has gotten away with it?

Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel.

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Terry Rich, a lottery official in Iowa, confirmed the ticket matching all six numbers was sold in Florida. Rich told The Associated Press by telephone that details were expected to be announced later by Florida lottery officials about the actual ticket sold.

Powerball.com said the winner sold in Florida means the current estimated jackpot resets at $40 million or $25.1 million cash value.

The numbers drawn Saturday were: 10, 13, 14, 22, 52 and Powerball 11.

With four of every five possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, someone was almost certain to win the game’s highest jackpot, though chances of winning remained astronomically low at 1 in 175.2 million.

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DAMASCUS, Va. – About 50 to 60 people were injured Saturday when a driver described by witnesses as an elderly man drove his car into a group of hikers marching in a parade in a small Virginia mountain town.

It happened around 2:10 p.m. during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail in Damascus, near the Tennessee state line about a half-hour drive east of Bristol.

Washington County director of emergency management Pokey Harris said no fatalities had been reported.

The injuries ranged from critical to superficial, he said. Three of the victims were flown by helicopters to regional hospitals. Another 12 to 15 were taken by ambulance. The rest were treated at the scene.

At a news conference, Damascus Police Chief Bill Nunley didn’t release the driver’s name or age but said he was participating in the parade. Multiple witnesses described him as an elderly man.

Nunley said the man’s 1997 Cadillac was one of the last vehicles in the parade and the driver might have suffered an unspecified medical problem when his car accelerated to about 25 mph and struck the crowd on a two-lane bridge along the town’s main road. The driver was among those taken to hospitals.

“It is under investigation and charges may be placed,” Nunley said.

There were ambulances in the parade ahead of the hikers and paramedics on board immediately responded to the crash.

Nunley cited the “quick action” by police, firefighters, paramedics and hikers to tend to the victims, including a Damascus volunteer firefighter who dove into the car to turn off the ignition. The firefighter, whose name wasn’t released, suffered minor injuries.

Nunley said about 1,000 people participated in the parade. Nunley said the driver was a hiker, too – someone who had traversed the Appalachian Trail in the past.

What caused the car to drive into the crowd wasn’t immediately known. A thud could be heard, people yelled stop, and at some point, the car finally stopped.

Witnesses said the car had a handicapped parking sticker and it went more than 100 feet before coming to a stop.

“He was hitting hikers,” said Vickie Harmon, a witness from Damascus. “I saw hikers just go everywhere.”

Damascus resident Amanda Puckett, who was watching the parade with her children, ran to the car, where she and others lifted the car off those pinned underneath.

“Everybody just threw our hands up on the car and we just lifted the car up,” she said.

Keith Neumann, a hiker from South Carolina, said he was part of the group that scrambled around the car. They pushed the car backward to free a woman trapped underneath and lifted it off the ground to make sure no one else was trapped. Another person jumped inside to put it in park.

“There’s no single heroes. We’re talking about a group effort of everybody jumping in,” he said.

Mayor Jack McCrady encouraged people to attend the festival on Sunday, its final day.

“In 27 years of this, we’ve never had anything of this magnitude, and is it our job to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

McCrady said a donation fund was being set up to assist the injured, some of whom don’t have medical insurance.

“We want to make sure they don’t suffer any greater loss than they already have,” he said.

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ATLANTA – Republicans aren’t the only ones roiled by internal jostling and recruiting hiccups ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Two top-tier Democratic prospects recently bypassed running for Senate seats in Georgia and South Dakota, highlighting both divisions within the party and its challenge of finding candidates whose ideologies line up with voters in Republican-leaning states.

Democrats say they’ll be fine even though Rep. John Barrow in Georgia and former Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin in South Dakota declined to seek seats left open by retirements. Both are moderate-to-conservative Democrats whose views would seemingly play well in their states, giving the party a chance to win on GOP turf as Democrats look to hang onto power in the Senate. But without them running, Democrats probably will be forced to back more liberal, less-tested nominees who would likely have tougher races.

The circumstances underscore a particular challenge for Democrats: They have a six-seat cushion, counting Vice President Joe Biden’s ability to cast tie-breaking votes. That requires Republicans to nearly sweep the most competitive races to gain enough seats for control. But many of the contests are in states where President Barack Obama never won and remains unpopular.

Another hurdle for Democrats: Midterm electorates are generally older, whiter and more Republican than in presidential years.

Georgia Democrats are hoping to recruit Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn and a nonprofit executive in Atlanta. She’s expected to announce a decision soon in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

In the contest for retiring Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson’s South Dakota seat, Democrats’ preferred candidate now appears to be Rick Weiland, once a top aide to former Sen. Tom Daschle and twice an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. Weiland launched his bid, with Daschle’s backing, amid clamoring about Herseth-Sandlin and Johnson’s son, Brendan, a U.S. attorney. State Democrats now say the younger Johnson likely won’t run.

“It’s a recipe for a challenging campaign,” said Steve Dick, a former Daschle aide. “It’s a tough race, without a doubt. And it’s getting more difficult. We’re a red state. We just don’t have these opportunities that often.”

South Dakota is one of three states where a Democratic senator is retiring in a state Obama lost last November; the others are Montana and West Virginia. There also are Democratic retirements in the swing-voting states of Iowa and Michigan, which Obama won.

Republicans also are aiming at four Democratic incumbents in states Republican Mitt Romney won: Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Georgia, which went for Romney by 8 percentage points over Obama, has one of two GOP seats opened by retirements; the other is in Nebraska, a virtual lock for Republicans.

Democrats say they can challenge Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, but they haven’t yet recruited a top-tier candidate even though the Republican is unpopular at home.

At the National Republican Senatorial Committee, spokesman Brad Dayspring mocked Democrats for failing at a strategy he says was clear: Get conservative Democrats in Republican-leaning states. But Justin Barasky, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, dismissed the notion of an internal Democratic struggle or recruiting woes, and pointed to divisive primaries shaping up for Republicans in several states.

Clearly, Democrats are left with a tricky balance as they look for candidates with this criteria: Satisfy core Democratic voters, ensure successful fundraising and reach independents who voted for Romney and, before him, John McCain and George W. Bush.

Some Democrats thought Barrow and Herseth-Sandlin satisfied those standards.

Barrow is the Deep South’s last white Democrat in the House, and he’s beaten well-financed GOP nominees in a House district drawn to ensure his defeat. He’s a gun owner who voted against the 2010 health care overhaul and voted to hold Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, in contempt of Congress. He supported the so-called fiscal cliff deal between Obama and congressional Republicans, and successfully wooed thousands of Romney supporters in his last campaign.

But the way Barrow keeps his job could explain why he abandoned the possibility of a promotion.

“His profile is more appropriate to his congressional district than to a statewide run, particularly for metro Atlanta, where most of the votes are in the progressive base,” said state Sen. Vincent Fort, a Democrat from the city.

Some Democrats had feared that Barrow would have drawn a primary opponent, and both national and state Democrats concede that the party’s best chance for a Georgia upset is to avoid a divisive primary, while leaving a crowded GOP field to spend money and throw punches.

Fort said Nunn would be a compelling candidate. And Democrats, eager to dispute the notion that losing Barrow is a disappointment, point to polling commissioned by Senate Democrats that suggests Nunn would be the better candidate in a general election.

Former Rep. George “Buddy” Darden said Nunn’s lack of experience could be an asset. She doesn’t have a record to parse and can run as an outsider, he said, a particular upside if Republicans nominate one of the three sitting congressmen who are running.

GOP Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston are joined by Karen Handel, a former executive with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the breast cancer organization, in a race that could draw additional, well-financed candidates. Georgia is just one of several states where Republicans face the prospect of divisive primaries.

In South Dakota, Herseth-Sandlin had been seen by national Democrats as a top-tier prospect because her profile fit the state, and they were aggressively courting her behind the scenes. The 42-year-old Sioux Falls lawyer was taking steps toward running, hoping to avoid a divisive primary in which her opposition to the health care bill in 2010 and support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in 2004 would be used against her.

Weiland, meanwhile, quickly entered the race, in part to keep Herseth-Sandlin out, a sign of tension between the moderate and liberal wings. Weiland, who lost to Herseth-Sandlin in the 2004 House primary, is a close Daschle ally.

Brendan Johnson, also a Daschle ally, would not challenge Weiland, especially in a state where successful Democrats are rare and clubby. However, Weiland, while a seasoned party operative, would likely bow out, should the younger Johnson assess the race over the summer and decide to enter in the fall.

That scenario becomes more probable should the race for the Republican nomination become contested, South Dakota Democrats said.

Former Gov. Mike Rounds is running and his fellow Republicans view him as a solid candidate. Yet popular GOP newcomer Kristi Noem, elected to the House in 2010, hasn’t ruled out a candidacy. She’s popular with the tea party and is seen as a better fundraiser than Rounds.

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Barrow is no relation to the congressman. Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, seeking to regain his footing amid controversies hammering the White House, named a temporary chief for the scandal-marred Internal Revenue Service Thursday and pressed Congress to approve new security money to prevent another Benghazi-style terrorist attack.

The efforts did little to satisfy Republicans, who see the controversies as an opportunity to derail Obama’s second-term agenda. House Speaker John Boehner suggested the White House had violated the public’s trust, and he promised to “stop at nothing” to hold the administration accountable.

“Nothing dissolves the bonds between the people and their government like the arrogance of power here in Washington,” Boehner said. “And that’s what the American people are seeing today from the Obama administration — remarkable arrogance.”

The targeting of conservative political groups by the IRS and new questions about the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year — along with the Justice Department’s seizure of journalists’ phone records — have consumed the White House for nearly a week. Of the three controversies, the president’s advisers see the IRS matter as the most likely to linger. At least three congressional committees are planning investigations into the agency that touches the lives of nearly every American.

Obama, who was criticized by both opponents and allies for his measured initial response to the IRS targeting, vowed to ensure the agency acts “scrupulously and without even a hint of bias.”

“I think we’re going to be able to fix it,” he declared during a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Soon afterward, Obama appointed senior budget official Danny Werfel to temporarily run the IRS, one day after Acting Commissioner Steven Miller’s forced resignation. The White House is expected to nominate a permanent commissioner later this year.

However, the president knocked down the prospect of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS, saying the congressional investigations and a separate Justice Department probe should be enough to nail down who was responsible for improperly targeting tea party groups when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Obama and Erdogan were questioned during a light but steady rain during Thursday’s outdoor event. As the rain picked up, the president summoned a pair of Marine guards to provide umbrellas for Erdogan and himself, joking, “I’ve got a change of suits, but I don’t know about our prime minister.”

The news conference marked Obama’s first comments on the government’s widely criticized seizure of telephone records of reporters and editors of The Associated Press in an investigation of news leaks. The president spoke of the importance of striking a balance between “secrecy and the right to know” but said he would make no apologies for trying to protect classified information that could put Americans at risk.

“I’ve still got 60,000-plus troops in Afghanistan, and I’ve still got a whole bunch of intelligence officers around the world who are in risky situations,” he said. “Part of my job is to make sure that we’re protecting what they do, while still accommodating for the need for information.”

The president said he continues to have confidence in Attorney General Eric Holder, who has been the target of intense criticism from lawmakers after the phone record subpoenas were made public.

The IRS and Justice Department controversies have coincided with a revival in the GOP-led investigations into the September attacks in Benghazi, which claimed the lives of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

Obama, who angrily cast the investigations as a “sideshow” earlier this week, tried to turn the focus to Congress on Thursday. He urged lawmakers to provide more money to strengthen security at U.S. diplomatic missions around the world.

“We need to come together and truly honor the sacrifice of those four courageous Americans and better secure our diplomatic posts around the world,” Obama said. “That’s how we learn the lessons of Benghazi. That’s how we keep faith with the men and women who we send overseas to represent America.”

The State Department is seeking about $1.4 billion for increased security; the money would come primarily from funds that haven’t been spent in Iraq. It would include $553 million for 35 more Marine Security Guard units, $130 million for 155 diplomatic security agents and $376 million for security upgrades and construction at new embassies.

Since the attack, Democrats have complained that Republicans cut $300 million from the Obama administration’s budget request of $2.6 billion for diplomatic and embassy security in 2012.

Congressional Republicans held new hearings on the Benghazi attacks last week, and a congressional official also released details of emails that GOP lawmakers said suggested an administration effort to downplay the prospect of terrorism in the election year attacks. The White House, which has long disputed allegations of a cover-up, released 100 pages of documents Wednesday in an effort to put an end to protracted controversy.

However, the release of the emails didn’t quiet the GOP furor on Capitol Hill, and investigations continued to move ahead. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said that while he applauded the release of “hand-picked emails,” the White House should release all the unclassified emails.

“I want all the documents released,” said Chaffetz, who also made clear that the committee wanted to talk to more current and former administration officials.

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WASHINGTON – There’s an irony in the Internal Revenue Service’s crackdown on conservative groups.

The nation’s tax agency has admitted to inappropriately scrutinizing smaller tea party organizations that applied for tax-exempt status, and senior Treasury Department officials were notified in the midst of the 2012 presidential election season that an internal investigation was underway. But the IRS largely maintained a hands-off policy with the much larger, big-budget organizations on the left and right that were most influential in the elections and are organized under a section of the tax code that allows them to hide their donors.

“The IRS goes AWOL when wealthy and powerful forces want to break the law in order to hide their wrongful efforts and secret political influence,” said Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat who is among a small Senate group pushing campaign finance reform measures that would force these big outside groups to disclose their donors. “Picking on the little guy is a pretty lousy thing to do.”

Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS and the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity were among those that spent tens of millions of dollars on TV ads and get-out-the-vote efforts to help Republicans. Democrats were aided in similar fashion by Priorities USA, made up of former Barack Obama campaign aides, and American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, an opposition research group led by a former adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

And yet those groups so far have escaped investigations into whether they have crossed the blurry line under the law between what constitutes a tax-exempt “social welfare” organization that is free from donor reporting requirements and a political committee subject to taxes and disclosures.

Watchdog groups and lawmakers who have sought more disclosure and restrictions on such groups claim an injustice. They say the IRS saga over the targeting of smaller groups shines a bright light onto the agency’s failure to guard against the flood of secret money into the political system through the creation of the deep-pocketed groups.

Yet other advocates of reform worry that, in light of the IRS disclosure of targeting small groups, government regulators will be less likely to scrutinize the tax-exempt status of the bigger, more powerful groups out of fear that they will appear to be targeting groups for political reasons.

“We expect that opponents of disclosure will try to use the recent developments to allow the groups that are misusing the tax laws to hide donors to continue misusing them. But that’s a battle that we will engage in,” said Fred Wertheimer, founder and president of watchdog group Democracy 21.

Since a series of court decisions including the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2010 Citizens United case, the IRS has seen an influx of applications – from 1,735 in 2010 to 3,357 in 2012 – by so-called social welfare groups wanting to form under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code. That section grants tax-exempt status as long as the primary mission of these organizations is not politics and influencing elections. The IRS makes that determination. Such nonprofits can keep secret the names of their donors, which are not subject to traditional campaign finance limits.

The rules are fuzzy. The law says that these groups can only be involved in social welfare activity and not politics. But IRS regulations give the groups leeway to conduct political activities – as long as that is not its “primary activity.” That conflict opens the door to potential abuses and different interpretations of what is allowed and what is prohibited.

An IRS inspector general’s report released this week recommended developing for the first time specific guidelines to measure the primary activity of social welfare organizations, and some in Congress have shown a willingness to review big groups like the nonprofit Crossroads GPS and its sister super PAC, American Crossroads. They spent a combined $176 million in the last election cycle, much of it on television advertisements to benefit Republican candidates.

A Senate investigative panel led by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan and Republican John McCain of Arizona has been reviewing the use of social welfare groups for political causes for the past year and now is examining the agency’s handling of the tax-exempt reviews.

And in a letter to congressional investigators Thursday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., urged the House Ways and Means Committee not to ignore the influx of groups that may be abusing the tax code as part of its upcoming IRS probe, saying: “I hope we can remove the incentive for any group, regardless of its political orientation, to seek 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status to engage in significant political campaign activities while hiding their donors.”

Despite the bipartisan outcry over the IRS scandal, there’s little incentive for lawmakers on either side of the aisle to push for reforms because Republicans and Democrats alike benefit from these big outside groups.

In fact, just the opposite may be happening.

Some congressional Democrats, fearful of being tied to the scandal, are backing the push for more aggressive enforcement of these groups. And some conservative leaders and Republican donors are using the IRS scandal to help protect the status quo while preparing to pump hundreds of millions of dollars – raised anonymously in many cases with no contribution limits – into the next election cycle, just as they did last fall.

“I would hope that this new information about the politicization of the IRS should put the brakes on any sort of disclosure of donors who wish to remain anonymous,” said Charlie Spies, who helps raise money for several conservative organizations and previously led the super political action committee that raised more than $140 million to benefit Mitt Romney’s presidential bid. “We’re now seeing exactly what the risk is for donors to be disclosed.”

At least some tea party groups are unwilling to trust the agency with more enforcement power in the wake of such damaging revelations.

“The IRS’ integrity is shattered,” said Jenny Beth Martin, chairman of the Tea Party Patriots, which was among the largest nonprofit conservative groups the IRS targeted. She said that now, more than ever, donors need freedom to give money anonymously “without fear of retribution” from a politicized IRS. In the meantime, she says her organization’s influence is growing, fueled by anonymous unlimited donations.

Wertheimer, of Democracy 21, said the “laundering of secret money into elections” will become a greater scandal than IRS misconduct unless something is done.

“There will be efforts to sweep this under the rug,” he said. “They may succeed on a temporary basis for a relatively short period, but they are not going to succeed in the long term.”

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Peoples reported from Boston.

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