• Sexy Liberal John Fugelsang joins us in the New York Bureau at 9am ET / 6am PT for all three hours of Fridays With Fugelsang

• Ari Berman of The Nation and author of “Herding Donkeys” calls in at 11am ET / 8am PT to talk about how the GOP is re-segregating the South

• Mitt Romney will address a yearly gathering of Republican activists in Washington, D.C. today , on a much different footing than he did in 2008, when he announced to attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference that he was ending his presidential campaign.

• Congressional Democrats and Republicans escalated their rhetorical war Thursday over a pending federal rule requiring religiously affiliated employers to provide full contraception coverage to women — one day after hints emerged of a possible compromise between the White House and conservative religious critics.

• A landmark $25 billion settlement reached by the federal government, 49 states, and the nation’s five biggest banks will provide long-overdue relief for hundreds of thousands of homeowners who have been struggling to navigate the mortgage mess created by lenders.

• Ron Barber, an aide to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, will run for the Arizona Congressional seat left empty when Giffords resigned from Congress last month. Giffords personally asked him to run.