Mitt Romney’s backpedaling was swift last night after a video of him was published telling the audience at a fund-raiser that “47 percent of the population…believe they are victims and believe the government has a responsibility to take care of them.”  David Brooks has a good take on it this morning in the New York Times, writing, “as a description of America today, Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other.” VIDEO

Are you ready for some (nasty) football? USA Today says a new type of play has emerged since the NFL started using replacement refs—one in which “cheap shots, illegal hits and non-calls” run rampant. The shoddy performance has led to a call by players and coaches to immediately end the three-month lockout and get the league’s regular refs back on the field.

The young man-centric brand Axe has come up with a novel way to pitch water conservation. A new ad campaign promotes “showerpooling,” the practice of washing off with a friend or an “attractive stranger.” USA Today says its tongue-in-cheek references resonate well with a younger audience, and calls it “a made-for-Millennial campaign.” Parent company Unilever says the spots are actually about water conservation, noting that the average college student takes an 18-minute shower. VIDEO

Well isn’t that ironic? There’s a priceless photo of the Duchess of Cambridge on the front page of the New York Daily News this morning. As the royals continue to make a fuss over the long-lens topless photos of Kate, here she is visiting with topless tribal women in the Solomon Islands. Is it me, or does it seem like the irony of this visit is not lost on the princess.

There’s a fascinating historical anecdote on the front page of the LA Times this morning. Shanghai, it turns out, was home to more than 20,000 European Jews during World War II. China, which was occupied by Japan at the time, was one of the few countries that didn’t require a visa and put no limits on how many Jews they would accept. When the communists took over in 1949, most of Shanghai’s Jews fled again, and when they did, this chapter of history was largely forgotten.

Forget the president and Mitt Romeny—the biggest celebrity in Washington right now is black and white and cuddly. The National Zoo welcomed a new panda in to the world late Sunday night when it’s giant female panda in residence Mei Xiang gave birth after five failed attempts.  Zoo officials say they will stick with the Chinese custom of waiting 100 days to name the cub.

Interesting story in the Wall Street Journal this morning abut your Internet speed. It may not be your cable or phone company—it may be your wireless router that is the weakest link. The Journal says most people only get about 50 percent of the “capacity promised by their Wi-Fi routers” and that number is even lower the more people using the same network.