Ohio Vote Puts Curbs on Unions in Reach  —  Ohio state senators narrowly approved a bill that would prohibit public-employee unions representing 400,000 state and local workers from bargaining over health benefits and pensions, while also eliminating the right to strike.

Longhorns 17, Badgers 1  —  Please pardon this brief departure from my normal folderol, but every so often a member of the chattering class issues a nugget of stupidity so egregious that no amount of mockery will suffice.  Particularly when the issuer of said stupidity holds a Nobel Prize.

Poll Finds Support Lacking for Entitlement Reductions  —  WASHINGTON— Less than a quarter of Americans support making significant cuts to Social Security or Medicare to tackle the country's mounting deficit, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, illustrating the challenge facing lawmakers …

Northwestern University defends after-class live sex demonstration  —  More than 100 Northwestern University students watched as a naked 25-year-old woman was penetrated by a sex toy wielded by her fiancee during an after-class session of the school's popular “Human Sexuality” class.

Obama Says Race a Key Component in Tea Party Protests  —  In a new book, President Obama talks candidly about race and the presidency  —  African-Americans have been an integral part of the White House since it was built in part by slaves.  In Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans …

Soldier Faces 22 New WikiLeaks Charges  —  WASHINGTON — The Army announced 22 additional charges on Wednesday against Pfc. Bradley Manning, the military intelligence analyst who is accused of leaking a trove of government files to WikiLeaks a year ago.  —  The new charges included …

Obama is enabling jihad  —  U.S. interests sacrificed in favor of radical Islam  —  Al Qaeda and Iran are cheering on the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, so why does the Obama administration think the Islamic extremists are losing?  —  On Tuesday at a Pentagon press briefing …

Tea party leader: John Boehner should go  —  A national tea party group is in revolt against House Speaker John Boehner and wants to see him defeated in a 2012 primary, arguing that he looks “like a fool” in the debate over spending cuts and makes less sense than actor Charlie Sheen.

Frankfurt Airport Shooting an Act of Islamic Terror, European Officials Say  —  Suspect, 21, Accused of Killing Two U.S. Servicemen in Germany; Shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ During Attack  —  Authorities in Europe are calling the shooting at a Frankfurt, Germany, airport that claimed the lives …

HOUSE REPUBLICAN RAISES SPECTER OF IMPEACHMENT.... Late last week, disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who knows a little something about the practice, raised the prospect of presidential impeachment.  The Republican, perhaps best known for leading the crusade against President Clinton …

ARE THEY SERIOUS?  ‘SHARIAH 4 AMERICA’ GROUP CALLS FOR ‘BURKHA’ ON STATUE OF LIBERTY  —  As we've reported, controversial UK Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary has called on Muslims to “rise to implement the Shari'ah in America,” starting with a planned demonstration in front of the White House on Thursday.

Rep. Giffords on list of endangered Dems  —  The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee included Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on its list of the most vulnerable incumbents, released Thursday.  —  As Giffords remains in a Houston hospital, where she is recovering from the gunshot wound …

How the Edwards Affair Ended Up in the Enquirer  —  Lisa Druck was trouble.  You'd run into her at Nell's where we all tended to hang out and she'd be in a panic.  Some guy would be running from her, taxiing quickly to another club.  She'd storm the bathrooms and you could hear her voice …

Anthony Weiner Berates, Belittles, and Insults Megyn Kelly During Interview  —  This all started off as an interview about whether or not Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from any future Supreme Court cases involving obamacare.  However, after Megyn Kelly pressed Democrat Congressman Anthony Weiner …

Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn?  —  The jabs Erin Parker has heard about her job have stunned her.  Oh you pathetic teachers, read the online comments and placards of counterdemonstrators.  You are glorified baby sitters who leave work at 3 p.m. You deserve minimum wage.

CUNY Adjusts Amid Tide of Remedial Students  —  The City University of New York has long spent much of its energy and resources just teaching new students what they need to begin taking college-level courses.  —  But that tide of remedial students has now swelled so large …

Videos a weapon in Wisconsin fight  —  Stung by allegations of incendiary, racist and homophobic rhetoric at tea party rallies last year, conservative activists with flipcams and camera phones have circulated at the union protests sprouting up across the country in hopes of catching violent …

Scores of Union Leaders Earn Six-Figure Salaries … On the surface, the fight between the governor of Wisconsin and organized labor is about balancing state budgets and collective bargaining rights.  Behind the scenes, hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to top labor leaders …

Obama's Health Waiver Gambit  —  The White House offers the mirage of state flexibility.  —  'I am aware that I have not convinced everybody here to be a member of the Affordable Care Act fan club," President Obama told a group of Governors over the weekend, and he could have mentioned a majority of the public too.

First Thoughts: Chased by a tiger  —  NBC/WSJ poll suggests GOP is caught between a cliff (independents who might not like deep budget cuts) and a charging tiger (a Tea Party that does)... What's popular and unpopular to cut... The poll on Wisconsin and the state budget battles …

Rahm Emanuel meets fake Twitter Rahm, says phony right on target  —  Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel admitted Wednesday that there were times, after a long day on the campaign trail, that he would read the profane diatribes of his alter-ego on @MayorEmanuel.com and think to himself, “My sentiments exactly!”