U.S. Shelves Nuclear-Missile Shield  —  Czech Interim Prime Minister Gets Midnight Call  —  WASHINGTON — The White House will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe.

ACORN Video: Prostitution Scandal in San Diego, CA  —  With 70 miles of stunning beaches and picture-perfect weather all year round, having fun during the summer in San Diego doesn't require a lot of money.  —  The city combines old-fashioned Mexican charm with a modern edge.

Analysis: Baucus Health-Care Bill Appears to Be Moving Forward  —  On the surface, it appears that no one is happy with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) — and that may be the best news President Obama has had in months.  —  Within minutes of the release of the Senate Finance Committee chairman's …

Triple-snort-worthy: White House “distances” itself from ACORN  —  Good thing I wasn't drinking coffee when I read the Politico headline about Team Obama trying to run away from ACORN:  —  “W.H. distances from activist group”  —  Choking.  Up.  With.  Laughter.

Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary Dies at 72  —  Mary Travers, whose ringing, earnest vocals with the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary made songs like “Blowin' in the Wind,” “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” enduring anthems of the 1960s protest movement, died on Wednesday at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.

Dodd Inching Back Up In Connecticut, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Obama Slide Continues  —  Connecticut voters disapprove 49 - 43 percent of the job Sen. Christopher Dodd is doing, his best score in six months and better than his 52 - 42 percent disapproval July 23, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Democrats join GOP czar wars  —  In the war on the czars, Glenn Beck and the GOP are picking up reinforcements from an unlikely source: the Democratic Party.  —  The Fox News host and leading Republican lawmakers have been hammering President Barack Obama for weeks over a proliferation of policy …

Essay: Chop and Crop  —  [David Hume Kennerly is a former contributing editor of Newsweek.  He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his photographs of the Vietnam War.  A response from Newsweek follows immediately below.]  —  The Sept. 14th Newsweek cover line — “Is Your Baby Racist?”

Sotomayor Challenges Corporate Law  —  WASHINGTON — In her maiden Supreme Court appearance last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a provocative comment that probed the foundations of corporate law.  —  During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court's majority conservatives seemed persuaded …

Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?  —  On Sept. 12, a large crowd gathered in Washington to protest ... what?  The goals of Congress and the Obama Administration, mainly — the cost, the scale, the perceived leftist intent.  The crowd's agenda was wide-ranging, so it's hard to be more specific.

Sword-wielding Hopkins student kills intruder  —  Intruder was repeat offender, released from prison Saturday  —  Hours earlier, someone had broken into John Pontolillo's house and taken two laptops and a video-game console.  Now it was past midnight, and he heard noises coming from the garage out back.

The Baucus Bill: The Worst Policy in the Bill, and Possibly in the World  —  Baucus's bill retains the noxious “free rider” provision on employers.  Rather than a simple employer mandate that forces every employer over a certain size to provide health-care insurance or pay a small fee …

DNC jumps in to czar story  —  After trying to keep a damper on the Van Jones and ACORN stories — perhaps in both cases because they were indefensible — the DNC has, as a colleague puts it, gotten the White House nod to dive into the freak show on the largely imaginary notion of sinister and proliferating czars.

Tea Party Protesters Protest D.C. Metro Service  —  Brody Mullins reports on money and politics.  —  Protesters who attended Saturday's Tea Party rally in Washington found a new reason to be upset: Apparently they are unhappy with the level of service provided by the subway system.

Israel Defence Chief: Iran Not An Existential Threat  —  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was quoted Thursday as saying he does not view Iran as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, a view that would seem to depart from Israeli statements of the recent past.