Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, even in self defense.  —  But the president …

A Top GOP Conservative Defends Pelosi, Slams Fox  —  Tom Coburn fiercely opposed Nancy Pelosi on the Health Bill but praised her as a “nice person.”  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Oklahoma town hall meeting with colorful characters and a lot of populist anger brought out an often glossed over side …

McMillen: I Was Sent to Fake Prom  —  To avoid Constance McMillen bringing a female date to her prom, the teen was sent to a “fake prom” while the rest of her class partied at a secret location at an event organized by parents.  —  McMillen tells The Advocate that a parent-organized prom happened behind …

Video Shows 2007 Air Attack in Baghdad That Killed Photographer  —  WASHINGTON — The Web site WikiLeaks.org released a graphic video on Monday showing an American helicopter shooting and killing a Reuters photographer and driver in a July 2007 attack in Baghdad.

Death Toll Hits 25 in West Virginia Coal Mine Blast  —  MONTCOAL, W.Va. — The death toll from a blast at a West Virginia coal mine rose to 25 on Tuesday, federal safety officials said, making it the worst mining accident in the United States in 25 years.  —  Four miners were still missing …

Relax, We'll Be Fine  —  According to recent polls, 60 percent of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction.  The same percentage believe that the U.S. is in long-term decline.  The political system is dysfunctional.  A fiscal crisis looks unavoidable.  There are plenty of reasons to be gloomy.

Young Eagles: Life in the fast lane  —  The big fundraising event at the Philadelphia Phillies home opener is canceled.  So is the one at the steeplechase race in Virginia horse country and the weekend at the North Carolina paramilitary training compound.  No definite word on the professional …

IRS chief: Buy health insurance or lose your tax refund  —  Individuals who don't purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.  After acknowledging the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency's options for enforcing the individual mandate …

Dems' special-election scramble  —  The prospect of losing two House seats in back-to-back special elections next month has sparked a vigorous, behind-the-scenes Democratic effort, designed to avoid an outcome that could lead to panic among the rank and file and stall the momentum generated …

Americans Prioritize Energy Over Environment for First Time  —  Data represent a continuing shift in opinion toward energy production  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are more likely to say the U.S. should prioritize development of energy supplies than to say it should prioritize protecting the environment …

White House Rouses Workers to Seek Wage Rights  —  The Labor Department is encouraging low-wage and immigrant workers to turn in employers who are shortchanging their pay, as part of an expanding effort to enforce wage and hour rules.  —  Labor Secretary Hilda Solis launched a campaign last week called …

ExxonMobil paid no federal income tax in 2009.  —  Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year.  “Most egregious,” Forbes notes, is General Electric, which “generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam.

Five stumbling blocks that could wipe out Democrats in November  —  Democrats feel they have grabbed political momentum, but the party still faces several dangers that could wipe it out in November.  —  Democratic strategists and independent political experts identify roughly five stumbling blocks …

FCC dealt significant blow in net neutrality ruling favoring Comcast  —  A federal appeals court on Tuesday dealt a significant blow to the Obama administration and net neutrality advocates, ruling that the Federal Communications Commission has no authority to regulate how Web providers manage their network traffic.

White House Correspondents' dinner just got harder for party crashers  —  Bad news for Washington's junior varsity Salahis: The most crashable (yet crash-worthy) party in town is taking new measures to keep you out.  —  For years, it has been an open secret in D.C. media-political circles …

Liberals not invited to Washington Post Q&A sessions  —  Today at 11, the Washington Post hosts Republican activist David Frum for an online Q&A. Yesterday, the Post hosted Republican former Vice President Dan Quayle for a Q&A. I have long had a suspicion that the Post hosts conservatives …

Majority in California support gay marriage, Times/USC poll finds  —  Same-sex marriage got majority support in the latest Los Angeles Times/USC poll — much like a similar poll by the Public Policy Institute of California earlier this spring.  —  But does that mean that a measure to repeal Proposition 8 …

D.C. streetcar project may get hung up on overhead wires  —  The District is putting down the first miles of track for a planned 37-mile streetcar network, a throwback of a kind popping up in many cities that advocates hope will bring back Washington's still-languishing neighborhoods.

What are you worth to your bank?  —  Let's take a breather from shadow banking to discuss commercial banking.  (We play both kinds here, country *and* western.)  Specifically you, as a customer: How much does your commercial bank make off of you?  —  I recently went out for drinks in Greenpoint with the creators of Bank Simple.

Giving Up on Policymakers  —  I've been pushing hard for more help for labor markets for quite awhile — at times I've thought it was a bit repetitive, but necessary — but it's probably time for me to give up and accept that we are going to have a slower recovery than we could have had with more aggressive fiscal policy.