Red Alert: Nuclear Meltdown at Quake-Damaged Japanese Plant  —  A March 12 explosion at the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Japan, appears to have caused a reactor meltdown.  —  The key piece of technology in a nuclear reactor is the control rods.

Murkowski opposes Planned Parenthood, Title X cuts  —  Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has come out in opposition to the House's attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, making her the first Republican senator to specifically support the beleaguered organization.

Today's tsunami: This is what climate change looks like  —  Update: The intent of this piece isn't to attribute today's tragedy to climate change.  Apologies to those whom I misled with the headline.  It was meant literally, as in: Tsunamis are inundations of shorelines and therefore …

Barack Obama: Bradley Manning's well-being a factor in his treatment  —  Add President Barack Obama to the list of people asking why an Army soldier accused of leaking classified information is being required to strip naked on a nightly basis at a Marine Corps brig.

Five charged in alleged plot to kidnap or kill troopers, judge  —  FAIRBANKS: Scheme targeted judge and state troopers, officials say.  —  Five people in the Fairbanks area were arrested Thursday by state and federal law enforcement on charges connected with an alleged plot to kidnap …

Obama promises to continue fight for women's equality  —  Two days after Senate Democrats demanded that President Obama take a more public stance in the budget fight, Obama devoted his weekly address to honoring Women's History Month.  —  While Democrats want the president to plunge …

Putin Throws Curveball to Biden With Suggestion on Visas  —  MOSCOW — When Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. sat down for his meeting with Vladimir V. Putin this week, the Russian prime minister opened with a curveball.  —  After noting joint projects on the table …

NFL players decertify their union  —  After two weeks of mediation with the league, the players decertify their union and become a trade association, which means the league probably won't be able to stage a lockout.  —  New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees arrives for negotiations …

Chris Matthews Sees Japan Earthquake an ‘Opportunity’ for Obama to Remind People He Was Born in Hawaii  —  Hundreds if not thousands of people are dead due to a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  But at least it gave Barack Obama an avenue to remind everyone he was born in Hawaii.

Gen. Wesley Clark says Libya doesn't meet the test for U.S. military action  —  In March of 1974, when I was a young Army captain, I was sitting in a conference on civil-military relations at Brown University.  Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.) was onstage expounding on the lessons from Vietnam about military interventions.

Same-Sex Marriage Bill Falls Short in Maryland  —  ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Lawmakers in Maryland on Friday failed to gather enough votes to pass a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry, withdrawing it from consideration after hours of emotional debate and effectively killing the bill's chances for passage this year.

Ex-judge Camp sentenced to 30 days in prison  —  After telling him he has “a scarlet letter chiseled on his forehead the rest of his life,” a federal judge sentenced disgraced ex-jurist Jack Camp to 30 days in prison for committing repeated crimes with a stripper.

My Sign-Off From Politics Daily … True to form, I was too busy to go to the meeting and missed my own firing yesterday; don't you hate it when that happens?  (All my life, my mom has been saying I'd be late to my own funeral, so could we please not tell her she was right?)

Letter indicates Rep. Richardson ethics probe  —  A letter of resignation sent by a former staffer to Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Cali.) appears to indicate that ethics investigators are probing the Los Angeles-area Congresswoman — a fact Richardson has denied to local reporters.

A European's Warning to America  —  The perils of following us toward greater regulation, higher taxes and centralized power.  —  On a U.S. talk-radio show recently, I was asked what I thought about the notion that Barack Obama had been born in Kenya.  “Pah!”  I replied.