Senate advances collective bargaining changes; Democrats to return after Assembly action  —  Republicans advance bill curbing most collective bargaining; Maneuver ignites furious protests  —  By Patrick Marley and Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison — With Democrats still in Illinois …

Christie's Talk Is Blunt, but Not Always Straight  —  New Jersey's public-sector unions routinely pressure the State Legislature to give them what they fail to win in contract talks.  Most government workers pay nothing for health insurance.  Concessions by school employees would have prevented any cuts in school programs last year.

As hearings begin, Peter King reveals threat against him  —  ‘If we know a threat is there ... how can we not investigate it?’  King said Thursday.  AP Photo  —  Ahead of his controversial hearing Thursday on the “radicalization” of American Muslims, Rep. Peter King is revealing …

GOP: Full speed ahead on defunding NPR  — TAGS: - Corporation for Public Broadcasting - House Republicans - National Public Radio - npr - vivian schiller  —  Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork  —  After the release of the James O'Keefe sting video Tuesday …

The quiet after the Capitol storm  —  Madison - After a wild and raucous night at the State Capitol, the scene inside the building Thursday morning looks just like it was a few weeks ago when protesters camped out overnight.  —  At 6:30 a.m., there were dozens of people who stayed the night …

Gaddafi forces beat up BBC team  —  Goktay Koraltan and Feras Killani said other detainees had been badly beaten  —  Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's security forces detained and beat up a BBC news team who were trying to reach the strife-torn western city of Zawiya.

Spending plan vote backfires as Democrats suffer defections  —  Senate Democrats suffered a wave of defections Wednesday as their proposal to cut just over $6 billion from federal spending this year went down to defeat.  —  The Democratic bill attracted two fewer votes than the rival GOP measure …

Justice Scalia Objects  —  One rough measure of how any Supreme Court term is going is to track the decibel level of Justice Antonin Scalia's dissenting opinions.  In a case last week, the question was whether statements made to the police by a shooting victim as he lay bleeding to death …

Interrogator in the Assange case friend with woman accusing Wikileaks founder  —  The police interrogator in the Julian Assange-investigation is a friend of one of the two women who is accusing the Wikileaks founder och sexual assault, Expressen can now reveal.

John Boehner must join: no budget, no pay  —  House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a recent speech in Nashville, Tenn., said it was our “moral responsibility” to avoid a government shutdown.  —  We couldn't agree more.  So we are now urging him to take a critical step to help take the threat of a government shutdown off the table.

Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town  —  CLEVELAND, Tex. — The police investigation began shortly after Thanksgiving, when an elementary school student alerted a teacher to a lurid cellphone video that included one of her classmates.  —  The video led the police to an abandoned trailer …