Japan Faces Potential Nuclear Disaster as Radiation Levels Rise  —  By HIROKO TABUCHI, KEITH BRADSHER and MATTHEW L. WALD  —  TOKYO — Japan faced the likelihood of a catastrophic nuclear accident Tuesday morning, as an explosion at the most crippled of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi …

Kansas legislator suggests using hunters in helicopters to control illegal immigration, likens immigrants to feral hogs  —  TOPEKA — A legislator said Monday it might be a good idea to control illegal immigration the way the feral hog population has been controlled — with hunters shooting from helicopters.

GOP House member resigns after mental illness remarks  —  CONCORD - Rep. Martin Harty, a Barrington Republican, has resigned his House seat in the wake of fire he drew for remarks on mental illness and population control.  —  Harty, who turns 92 this month, came into spotlight last week …

Republicans wary of David Rivera scandal  —  Florida Rep. David Rivera, under an ethical cloud and facing an expanding investigation into his finances, is in a political squeeze from Republicans in Washington and Miami just two months into his congressional tenure.

Don't donate money to Japan  —  Individuals are doing it, banks are doing it — faced with the horrific news and pictures from Japan, everybody wants to do something, and the obvious thing to do is to donate money to some relief fund or other.  —  Please don't.

USA Inc.  —  If the United States were a company, what financial shape would it be in?  And what would it make sense to do to put the company on a sounder footing?  These are the intriguing questions that a group of investment analysts from Kleiner Perkins, headed by Mary Meeker, set out to answer.

Former Senator Evan Bayh To Pair Lobbying With Conservative Television Punditry  —  When he first announced that he was stepping down from the United States Senate, Evan Bayh cited a lot of high-minded reasons for the decision.  So high-minded was his talk that Ezra Klein was moved to remark that …

N.R.A. Declines to Meet With Obama on Gun Policy  —  WASHINGTON — More than two months after the Tucson shootings, the administration is calling together both the gun lobby and gun safety groups to find common ground.  But President Obama has no plans to take the lead in proposing further …

Fitzgerald: Dem senators won't be allowed to vote in committees  —  Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald wrote this afternoon in an email to his caucus that Senate Dems remain in contempt of the Senate and will not be allowed to vote in committees despite returning from their out-of-state boycott of the budget repair bill vote.

Are Israeli Settlers Human?  —  A family of five slaughtered in their beds.  Some Palestinians call it ‘natural.’  —  A few years ago, British poet and Oxford don Tom Paulin offered a view on what should be done to certain Jewish settlers.  “[They] should be shot dead,” he told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The Abuse of Private Manning  —  Pfc. Bradley Manning, who has been imprisoned for nine months on charges of handing government files to WikiLeaks, has not even been tried let alone convicted.  Yet the military has been treating him abusively, in a way that conjures creepy memories …

Mormon Politicians From Utah Feel Tea Party Heat  —  COALVILLE, Utah — Jacqueline Smith fits no one's stereotype of a political kingmaker.  A home-schooling Mormon mother of five, Ms. Smith lives in a modest ranch-style house here in the mountains outside Salt Lake City with her husband, Cleve, a plumbing contractor.