By Thomas McKinless

In an era of actual fake news, a serious political newspaper running joke stories on April 1 may not be the best idea. But in the simpler days of 2002, then-Roll Call editor Tim Curran joined C-SPAN’s Peter Slen on the air to discuss Betty Ford running for Senate, oil being discovered under the Capitol and a government conspiracy against former Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.: three things that never actually happened but appeared on Roll Call’s front page for April Fools’.