Vt. legalizes gay marriage with veto override  —  FREE PRESS STAFF REPORT  —  VIDEO: House vote passes gay mariage bill .  —  MONTPELIER — Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.  —  The Legislature voted Tuesday …

‘House’ exclusive: The shocking story behind last night's big death  —  DEFCON 1 spoiler alert!  If you haven't seen last night's House, stop reading now.  Everyone else, onward and downward!  —  Here are the six things you need to know up-front about last night's House:

Franken extends lead over Coleman  —  The Democrat made a net gain today in a count of formerly rejected absentee ballots that pushed his advantage to more than 300 votes in the U.S. Senate race.  —  Democrat Al Franken today extended his lead over Republican Norm Coleman in the U.S. Senate election …

In Baghdad, Obama Presses Iraqi Leader to Unite Factions  —  BAGHDAD — President Obama made an unannounced trip Tuesday to Baghdad, punctuating his week-long overseas trip with a stop to talk to American troops and Iraqi leaders.  —  Addressing hundreds of troops gathered at a military base here …

The End of Philosophy  —  Socrates talked.  The assumption behind his approach to philosophy, and the approaches of millions of people since, is that moral thinking is mostly a matter of reason and deliberation: Think through moral problems.  Find a just principle.  Apply it.

Stevens Prosecutors to Be Investigated  —  WASHINGTON — A furious federal judge on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of ordering that the prosecutors who bungled the case of former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska be investigated for possible criminal wrongdoing.

New Data Show Rapid Arctic Ice Decline  —  Proportion of Thicker, More Persistent Winter Cover Is the Lowest on Record  —  The Arctic sea ice cover continues to shrink and become thinner, according to satellite measurements and other data released yesterday, providing further evidence …

Media Reports Major Defense Budget Cuts As Obama Proposes Increase In Defense Budget  —  The big news from yesterday (still settling in across Washington) is that President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates teamed up to propose a sweeping overhaul of the defense budget …

Scarborough Lies About Obama: ‘We Have A President Who Has Never Received A Paycheck’  —  This morning on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough ranted about President Obama's economic plans (even though 56 percent of Americans approve).  His latest talking point: that Obama “has never received a paycheck” in his entire life:

At What Point Did Republicans Become the Party of Bed-Wetting Hysterics?  —  Looking around the wingnutosphere today, I can't help but notice that it's SUCH A SCARY TERRIFYING WORLD.  —  Obama's taking our guns away! … Obama's disarming America! … Obama's a Stalinist!

Savage complains that “the hemorrhoid with eyes,” presumably Beck, rips off his show, but nonetheless questions Beck's sanity  —  I love how all these cons pretend they hate eachother , maybe they do .  But all of them are the same.  Preaching hate toward our country and President.

Americans More Optimistic; Still Hate GOP  —  The latest New York Times poll is loaded with good news for the Obama administration and news that would be devastating for the GOP if it were ever able to penetrate the conservative-media echo chamber.  While the public is still pretty pessimistic …

Times Editor: Lack Of Disclosure On Merkin Op-Ed Is No Big Deal  —  Here's another one to add to the growing list of “newspapers acting badly”...  Late last month, the New York Times published an op-ed by Daphne Merkin, a contributing writer to the Times Magazine, on the Bernie Madoff mess.

Trouble at UCSD: We Have To Help These Kids  —  Anyone who has immersed themselves in political life knows that the toughest and dirtiest battles are not fought at the top of the food chain, but the bottom.  The watchful eyes of the media largely keep our elected officials in check …

Bennet talks with skeptical Democrats in Fort Collins  —  Sen. Michael Bennet met with about 100 Larimer County Democrats on Monday night at New Belgium Brewing and frequently wound up giving them answers they didn't come to hear.  —  Facing a respectful but clearly skeptical audience of party activists …

‘No-Risk’ Insurance at F.D.I.C.  —  The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was set up 76 years ago with the important but simple job of insuring bank deposits.  —  Now, because of what could politely be called mission creep, it's elbowing its way into the middle of the financial mess as an enabler of enormous leverage.

Who Keeps Inviting the Bush-bots?  —  Just over four years ago, after George W. Bush was re-elected by the smallest margin for an incumbent since Woodrow Wilson held off Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, a palpable sense somehow took hold in much of the media that Karl Rove's concept of a “permanent Republican majority” had been realized.

Toxic debts could reach $4 trillion, IMF to warn  —  Toxic debts racked up by banks and insurers could spiral to $4 trillion (£2.7 trillion), new forecasts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are set to suggest.  —  The IMF said in January that it expected the deterioration …

Race and the Drug War  —  Last Friday, Jonah Goldberg wrote a post at The Corner arguing that there is something “unlibertarian” about opponents of drug prohibition who use claims about the drug war's disproportionate effects on blacks in an attempt to demonstrate its injustice.

Cantor's strategy: Ambush Democrats  —  Peril awaits any first-term lawmaker who ventures to the House floor unprepared for a duel, but Ohio Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy had a particularly rough go of it the other day.  —  Kilroy took the floor to support an amendment to a popular public-service bill …

President Obama to Europe: Sorry About the Bush Years*  —  ABC News' Jake Tapper and Karen Travers report:  —  ISTANBUL — “I know there have been some difficulties in recent years,” President Obama said today at a town hall meeting with Turkish high school and college students.

Outlines of an Obama Grand Strategy Emerge  —  VIENNA — In eight days in Europe, President Obama has started down the road to remaking the global financial system, reinvigorating the NATO commitment to Afghanistan and Pakistan, reinventing nuclear strategy and restoring relations to the Muslim world.