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 …

Obama Makes Unannounced Visit to Iraq  —  BAGHDAD — President Obama made an unannounced trip to Baghdad on Tuesday, punctuating his week-long overseas trip with a stop to talk to American troops and Iraqi leaders.  —  Air Force One landed at Baghdad International Airport under heavy security …

‘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:

Obama, the ICRC Report and ongoing suppression  —  (updated below)  —  Following up on the latest extremist Cheney/Addington/Yoo arguments advanced by the Obama DOJ in order to shield Bush lawbreaking from disclosure and judicial review — an episode I wrote about in detail yesterday …

Obama Holds a Town Hall in Istanbul  —  PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you so much.  Well, it is a great pleasure to be here.  Let me begin by thanking Professor Rahmi Aksungur — did I say that properly — who is director of the university here.  And I want to thank all the young people who've gathered together.

Lieberman-Obama honeymoon stops at missile defense  —  Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) has tried to mend his relationship with President Obama in recent months but their reconciliation hit a snag Monday over ballistic missile defense.  —  Lieberman, the self-described independent Democrat …

Reality hits Obama Express  —  President Barack Obama, after a lightning-quick start for his agenda on Capitol Hill, is bracing for a much slower pace and big changes in his proposals as early urgency and excitement give way to the more languid rhythms that are the norm for Congress.

‘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.

Pilot of Stolen Cessna Wanted U.S. Fighter Jets to Shoot Him Down  —  Trooper Said Yavuz Berke, Now in Custody, Wanted U.S. Military to Kill Him  —  The Canadian man wholed fighter jets on a chase across six states yesterday flew his stolen plane into the U.S. in hopes the military would shoot …

Poll: Obama Approval Hits New High - 66%  —  CBS/NY Times Survey Finds Most Believe World Leaders Respect President, Though They Maintain U.S. Is Not Respected Overall  —  (CBS) As President Obama concludes his well-publicized trip to Europe, Americans are more positive about the respect accorded …

Save American Jobs: Close Your Chase Account  —  It's time we started pressuring the banksters in the only language they understand: their pocket-books.  If they begin to lose customers who refuse to let their money be used to gamble away American jobs and taxpayer money …

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 …

NY-20: Absentee Ballot Distribution Appears to Favor Murphy (D)  —  The New York State Board of Elections has a lot of data (.pdf) out on absentee ballots in the special election in that state's 20th Congressional District, which will be vital in breaking the virtual tie between Scott Murphy and Jim Tedisco.

Judge: U.S. hid witness' mental illness in Guantanamo cases  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department improperly withheld important psychiatric records of a government witness who was used in a “significant” number of Guantanamo cases, a federal judge has concluded.

No, We Shouldn't Subsidize The News  —  Conor, You have a point.  I had a paragraph about externalities in my Post column that I cut for space.  The argument would have run something like this: it's good for you if I read the New York Times, and good for me if you read it …

'When Marlon Brando made me a Pessah offer I couldn't refuse'  —  A few weeks ago, as he began preparing material for our Pessah supplements, The Jerusalem Post's Managing Editor Steve Linde placed a small ad in the paper inviting readers to submit amazing but true Pessah stories.

When it comes to healthcare, the U.S., Britain and Canada are hurting  —  Healthcare in all three countries has the same problem.  They just feel it in different places.  —  When asked by the New England Journal of Medicine to detail his healthcare vision during the campaign …

Public Policy That Makes Test Subjects of Us All  —  Suppose you wanted to test the effects of halving the amount of salt in people's diets.  If you were an academic researcher, you'd have to persuade your institutional review board that you had considered the risks and obtained informed consent from the participants.

Obama's Tax Dodge  —  The Science of When to Get Married by Hannah Seligson  —  Blogs and Stories  —  When Obama returns home, former Clinton adviser Matt Miller says he'll face a mounting budget crisis—and will have to come clean about needing to raise our taxes.