Workers Strain to Retake Control After Blast and Fire at Japan Plant  —  TOKYO — Japanese officials and safety workers struggled to reassert control over badly damaged nuclear reactors and avert calamity on Tuesday after the situation at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant appeared …

Confidence Falls in U.S. System of Government  —  Confidence in the U.S. System of Government Drops to a 35-Year Low  —  Confidence in the U.S. system of government has dropped to a new low in more than 35 years, with public attitudes burdened by continued economic discontent …

Poll: Budget impasse cements public's disapproval of Washington  —  / AP - President Barack Obama gestures during his speech at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, Va., Monday, March, 14, 2011.  (AP Photo)

Huckabee, Bachmann Have Most Intense Following in GOP Field  —  Sarah Palin is best known, but her Positive Intensity Score trails  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee leads the field of possible GOP presidential candidates in “positive intensity” among Republicans nationwide …

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.

U.S.: Wait on health care review  —  The Obama Administration told the Supreme Court Monday evening that federal appeals courts are moving rapidly to review the constitutionality of the new health care law, so there is no need for the Justices to step in to decide the issue ahead of the lower courts.

King of Bahrain Declares State of Emergency  —  MANAMA, Bahrain — The king of Bahrain declared a three-month state of emergency on Tuesday as more than 10,000 protesters marched on the Saudi Arabian embassy here to denounce a military intervention by Persian Gulf countries the day before.

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 …

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 …

Rush's Presidential Standard (And Palin)  —  This is a fascinating moment.  Rush Limbaugh tries to fathom just why any leading Repubican would trash Sarah Palin as the Al Sharpton of the right.  Part of this, to my mind, has to be Limbaugh's deeply ingrained racism.

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.

House Republicans reject amendment that says climate change is occurring  —  House Republicans rejected amendments offered Tuesday by Democrats that called on Congress to accept the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, that it is caused in large part by human activity and it is a threat to human health.

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.

Manhattan mom sues $19K/yr. preschool for damaging 4-year-old daughter's Ivy League chances  —  Did a Manhattan preschool fail to adequately prepare a four-year-old girl for Harvard?  The girl's mom charges that the York Avenue Preschool hurt her child's chances in a lawsuit filed Monday.

Heller announces for Senate, takes shots at Obama, TARP and spending  —  In a statement teeming with conservative shibboleths, Rep. Dean Heller announced his candidacy this morning for U.S. Sen. John Ensign's seat in an email to supporters.  Heller has been widely expected to run since …

Wisconsin recall: 3 GOP state senators trail Generic Dem, more at risk  —  We asked our pollster, Public Policy Polling, to test the waters in all eight Republican-held state Senate districts in Wisconsin which are currently the target of recall efforts.  PPP went into the field over the weekend …

Social Security reform splits White House political, economic teams  —  Social Security reform is splitting President Obama's economic and political advisers.  —  Obama is being pulled in opposite directions by those whose priorities are fiscal and those whose No. 1 concern is electoral.