The first Morning Jolt of the week features Obamacare-driven giant health-insurance premium hikes, some idle chatter about potential nuclear war, Stuart Scott’s observation about performing daddy duties in public, and then this grim news:

Criminal Charges for GM. Can We Get Our $11.2 Billion Back?
Hey, remember “Government Motors”?
Federal prosecutors are likely to bring criminal charges against General Motors Co. over an ignition-switch defect linked to more than 100 deaths, but they still have to hash out key issues with GM including whether the auto maker will need to plead guilty and how big a fine it will have to pay, people familiar with the matter said.
GM’s cooperation with prosecutors could allow it to escape with a lighter fine that in any case is expected to top $1 billion.
Yes, this is the same GM that cost taxpayers an $11.2 billion loss in the bailout. So we spent a lot of money to help save a company that was allegedly engaged in a criminal conspiracy to cover up the fact that they were selling unsafe cars.
(When the government sold its first shares, President Obama boldly predicted, “American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM.”)
Back in April 2014, an unnamed source told Bloomberg BusinessWeek that GM didn’t tell the task force anything about the defective switches. It’s an unsurprising excuse, but not quite as exculpatory as that unnamed source may think. The task force’s job was to get an accurate portrait of GM’s assets, liabilities, and problems, and the source said GM’s board and the task force did discuss product-liability claims. The Obama administration bragged about the thoroughness of its review. At this point, it is unclear whether the task force spoke with anyone in the engineering department. At the precise moment the president’s task force was supposedly confronting GM about a dysfunctional corporate culture that had brought the company to the brink of ruin, it accepted everything GM’s leaders told it at face value.
I guess GM CEO Mary Barra won’t get invited to next year’s State of the Union, huh?

I know, I know . . . you want to go back to Memorial Day Weekend.