Russia kills most-wanted warlord  —  MOSCOW, Russia — Russia's most wanted man, Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, has been killed in an operation by special forces, the state security chief told President Vladimir Putin on Monday.  —  FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev said Basayev …

The Kos Campaign  —  Liberal blogs like Daily Kos have made Joe Lieberman their first domino.  But without a bigger vision, they may be the ones who fall.  —  M  —  arkos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder and chief firebrand of the liberal blog Daily Kos, sounded weary in a post …

Japan considers strike against N. Korea  —  TOKYO - Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.

Inside Higher Ed: "We are as fair as we can bring ourselves to be"  —  For those of you who haven't seen this Inside Higher Ed piece, take a look.  Then blink, and look again.  —  Does the story as it appears at Inside Higher Ed match the version of events we all watched unfold over the last few days?

New York building collapses, burns  —  Eleven injured; gas explosion appears to be cause  —  NEW YORK (CNN) — An explosion and fire leveled a residential building on New York's Upper East Side Monday morning, fire officials told CNN.  Eleven people were injured.

Hoekstra's Whistleblower?  —  Earlier, we surmised that the whistleblower that House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) was referring to was NSA whistleblower Russ Tice.  Then we reconsidered.  —  Now another candidate has stepped forward: Dave Gaubatz.

A Matter of Ethics...  I am an attorney by training and by my professional practice of the law for a number of years.  Although I am no longer practicing (this blog and motherhood taking up a substantial amount of my time), I do keep my mind in the game by reading a lot of the newer opinions …

Online Wagering Under Attack in Congress  —  Gamblers who prefer their laptops to blackjack tables won't like what Congress is doing.  On Tuesday, the House plans to vote on a bill that would ban credit cards for paying online bets and could padlock gambling Web sites.

Running Hard, Senate Power Seeks a New Image  —  PITTSBURGH, July 6 — The conservative glory days of 1994, when Rick Santorum roared into the Senate at the age of 36, seem a long time ago as he fights for his political life this year, trying to convince Pennsylvania voters that he has not gone Washington.

As Israel fights, Europe starts to squirm  —  While Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the cabinet Sunday that Israel has maintained "a level of understanding and support" abroad for its military actions, the words "disproportionate use of force" and "collective punishment" …

Wake up, Democrats: Ideas and vision do matter  —  Just waiting for the Republicans to self-destruct is a losing strategy.  —  SOMETHING HAPPENS to a political party when it is not just out of power but has had to play on the home field of its opponents for a generation: It loses faith in itself and becomes scared.

Well-Paid Benefit Most As Economy Flourishes  —  Wages are rising more than twice as fast for highly paid workers in the Washington area as they are for low-paid workers, an analysis of federal data by The Washington Post shows.  —  That means the spoils of the region's economic expansion …