Slate: “Twelve American presidents owned slaves, eight while serving in office, and at least 25 presidents count slave owners among their ancestors. But new historical evidence shows that a direct ancestor of George W. and George H.W. Bush was part of a much more appalling group: Thomas Walker was a notorious slave trader active in the late 18th century along the coast of West Africa.”

“Walker, George H.W. Bush’s great-great-great grandfather, was the captain of, master of, or investor in at least 11 slaving voyages to West Africa between 1784 and 1792.”

President Obama “is preparing regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants… The move would be the most consequential climate policy step he could take and one likely to provoke legal challenges from Republicans and some industries,” the New York Times reports.

“Mayor who inspired The Wire to visit Dublin”

— The Evening Herald, on Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s upcoming trip to Ireland.

“After Republicans lost the presidential election and seats in both the House and the Senate last year, many in the party offered a stern admonishment: if we want to broaden our appeal, steer clear of divisive social and cultural issues,” the New York Times reports.

“Yet House Republicans seem eager to reopen the emotional fight over abortion by bringing to the floor on Tuesday a measure that would prohibit the procedure after 22 weeks of pregnancy — the most restrictive abortion bill to come to a vote in either chamber in a decade.”

Political Wire may be updated less frequently today. Please use the comments to discuss the latest news.

Josh Romney told the Deseret News he “isn’t ruling out following in his father Mitt’s footsteps and running for office but for now will campaign again for GOP congressional candidate Mia Love.”

Georgia Democratic Party Chairman Mike Barton said that he “would resign amid mounting legal problems and growing pushback from fellow Democrats who feared his leadership could complicate the party’s comeback bid,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Berlon “had vowed to serve out the remaining two years of his four-year term after a trying month in which he was suspended by the State Bar of Georgia, reprimanded by Georgia’s top court and sued by a former client.”

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“If any Senate Republican up for re-election next year would seem ripe for a primary defeat it’s Lindsey Graham,” Politico reports.

“Yet a year out from his primary, Graham is in surprisingly good shape. He had over $5.4 million in the bank at the end of March, second only to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell among senators up in 2014, and his approval ratings remain solid if not spectacular. What’s more, the intensity on immigration has receded here and a set of issues has arisen that have benefited the incumbent.”

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Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) will announce his plans for 2014 on Friday, the AP reports.

“He could seek re-election. Parnell inherited the governor’s office when Sarah Palin resigned in 2009 and won it in his own right in 2010. But he’s also been mentioned as a possible challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich.”

Ben Smith: “There is a quiet and conventional path from shame to redemption for American political figures brought down by personal sins, and David Petraeus has, just six months after resigning as director of the CIA, followed it with his signature focus on strategy, and on his own image.”

“The former Iraq and Afghanistan commander, who resigned after an indiscreet extramarital affair, has mounted a two-pronged campaign on Washington, D.C. From the outside, he has chosen a safe and important charitable cause, the re-integration of veterans into American life. Meanwhile, on the inside, there are signs of just the right sort of Washington insurgency: Petraeus has not attempted the kind of brash, frontal, and unapologetic return former Rep. Anthony Weiner is trying in New York. Instead, he’s barely visible, working with the ubiquitous Beltway fixer Bob Barnett, though he has no book project or paid speaking tour in the works. He has been quietly, formally welcomed back to the town’s high society…”

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The final debate of the Senate Democratic primary in Massachusetts “devolved into an exchange of insults and character allegations” as Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) “abandoned collegiality for a heated confrontation with one week remaining in their contest,” the Boston Globe reports.

“The sharpest exchange, though, came when Markey said Lynch’s opposition to federal financial assistance for manufacturers prompted an endorsement for Markey from an automobile workers union. Lynch retorted that he had voted for that bailout, frequently praised by the Obama administration as a successful countermeasure to the recession.”

Said Lynch: “I don’t want to call you a liar, but you are.”

Markey responded: “Steve was inappropriately, personally insulting.”

All political news this morning is obviously overshadowed by the extensive manhunt for the persons responsible for the bombings earlier this week in Boston.

The Week explains how the suspects were hunted down.

The New York Times and the Guardian are tracking the events as they unfold.

Congressional ethics investigators are examining whether top staffers in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign played an improper role in the 2011 tour to promote her personal memoir, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

“The new questions about the promotion of Bachmann’s autobiography, Core of Conviction, suggest that the ethics review has widened beyond initial allegations that Bachmann improperly mixed funds between her campaign and her independent political organization, MichelePAC. The investigation also could extend Bachmann’s legal troubles, which began with a lawsuit alleging that one of her top Iowa staffers illegally appropriated an e-mail list of Iowa home school families.”