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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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?”

Obama Gets Highest Approval on Iraq, Lowest on Deficit  —  Little change in Obama approval on economy, healthcare  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Of the seven specific issue approval ratings measured in a Sept. 11-13 USA Today/Gallup poll, President Obama gets his highest rating (56%) on his handling of Iraq …

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.

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.

Teen birth rates highest in most religious states  —  Link may be due to communities frowning on contraception, researchers say  —  U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a new study suggests.

DNC jumps into 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.