EXCLUSIVE: Administration Vows No New Offshore Drilling Until Investigation is Complete  —  Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Threatens to Jeopardize President Obama's Offshore Drilling Policy  —  As some Democratic lawmakers call on President Obama to suspend his plans to expand offshore oil drilling …

Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card  —  A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation's immigrations laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday.  —  Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker …

Greene Enters Fla. Senate Race  —  Just when we thought the Florida Senate race couldn 't get any stranger...  No sooner did GOP Gov. Charlie Crist announce that he'll run as an independent, clearing the way for Marco Rubio to secure the Republican nomination, than billionaire credit default …

Obama takes immigration reform off agenda  —  WASHINGTON - Immigration reform has become the first of President Barack Obama's major priorities dropped from the agenda of an election-year Congress facing voter disillusionment.  Sounding the death knell was Obama himself.

Prosecutors Said to Start Inquiry at Goldman  —  By LOUISE STORY and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED  —  Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into trading at Goldman Sachs, raising the possibility of criminal charges against the Wall Street giant, according to people familiar with the matter.

At some point you have grabbed enough power  —  Given that poorer citizens always outnumber the rich, the classic political philosophers held that government based on majority rule would lead to organized theft from the wealthy by the democratic masses.  Thus Aristotle warned in The Politics …

Boehner: GOP could pick up 100 seats  —  House Republicans could win 100 or more seats in this fall's elections, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday.  —  Boehner said he believes there is no seat that the GOP cannot win during this election cycle, judging by Sen. Scott Brown's …

Consumers Help Drive U.S. Economy to 3.2% Growth Rate  —  The United States economy continued to expand in the first quarter, but economists cautioned that the pace of growth is still not nearly fast enough to recover ground lost during the recession.  —  National output grew …

Leslie Buck, Designer of Iconic Coffee Cup, Dies at 87  —  It was for decades the most enduring piece of ephemera in New York City and is still among the most recognizable.  Trim, blue and white, it fits neatly in the hand, sized so its contents can be downed in a New York minute.

EXCLUSIVE: U.N. Elects Iran to Commission on Women's Rights  —  Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law …

The man in the middle  —  Back in 1987, the man hired to crack wise at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner had a case of jagged nerves.  —  Ronald Reagan was president, and Jay Leno was just turning 37 — already a celebrated comic, not yet one of the country's most familiar faces.

National ID Card Included In Democratic Immigration Bill  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Democrats pushed forward on an immigration overhaul on Thursday evening with no Republican support, as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) continues to hold out, arguing that the divisive issue will make progress on climate change legislation impossible.

‘99ers’ dread future without jobless benefits  —  They've exhausted 99 weeks of unemployment checks.  Thousands are banding together to lobby Congress for another extension.  —  Becky Morgado talks with her daughter, Elysha, as she looks in the mirror in her bedroom.

British protesters attack Israel's deputy ambassador  —  Pro-Palestinian protesters storm towards Talya Lador-Fresher after her speech at Manchester University, prompting police to whisk her away from site.  Protesters proceed to encircle police car, climb on hood.  Ambassador Ron Prosor says sweeping denunciation expected

Pentagon Report Finds Few Gains in Afghan War  —  KABUL, Afghanistan — A Pentagon report on the last six months in Afghanistan portrays an Afghan government with limited credibility among its people, a still active if not growing insurgency and an enormous reliance on American troops to train …

iPhone Finder Regrets His ‘Mistake’  —  The person who found and sold an Apple iPhone prototype says he regrets not doing more to return the device to its owner, according to a statement provided by his attorney Thursday in response to queries from Wired.com.

Poll affirms a vote for judicial know-how  —  Some Senate Democrats and legal activists are advising President Obama to look beyond the “judicial monastery” to find a replacement for retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, but the public does not seem to share that view.

The Euro Trap  —  Not that long ago, European economists used to mock their American counterparts for having questioned the wisdom of Europe's march to monetary union.  “On the whole,” declared an article published just this past January, “the euro has, thus far, gone much better than many U.S. economists had predicted.”