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 …

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 …

Sen. Fitzgerald: Senate Dems' committee votes will not be counted or recorded  —  Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald has told Senate Republicans that any votes taken by Senate Democrats in standing committee public hearings and executive sessions will not be counted or recorded.

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 …

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.

Snake dies from silicone poisoning after biting model's breast during photoshoot  —  It should have been an alluring photoshoot between two of nature's beautiful creatures as a model wrapped herself in a snake.  —  But surgically enhanced Israeli model Orit Fox got more than she bargained …

Brutal numbers for Kasich, SB 5  —  Ohio Senate Bill 5 may not be in effect for very long...54% of voters in the state say they'd repeal it in an election later this year while just 31% say they'd vote to let the bill stand.  —  The support for repealing SB 5 is reflective of a high level …

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 …

Ethics complaint filed against Claire McCaskill  —  Missouri Republicans have filed a complaint against Sen. Claire McCaskill with the Senate Ethics Committee, calling for an investigation into whether the Missouri Democrat improperly used taxpayer funding to cover the cost of at least one airplane trip to a political event.

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.

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 …

Trump Unplugged  —  [Editor's note: These are uncut excerpts from HUMAN EVENTS's exclusive interview with Donald Trump on culture, politics, and his potential run for the presidency.  To read the cover story, “Can Donald Trump Save America?” go here]  —  Trump on Charlie Sheen's debut on “Celebrity Apprentice”

While Japan Burns, Obama Fills Out His Bracket  —  Wow: … Via Mike Allen's newsletter, we see in the first line how the leader of the free world will spend his day during this awful crisis: … Okay, that's not all he's doing.  “Obama will tape interviews from the Map Room with KOAT Albuquerque …

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.

Markets Roiled by Earthquake  —  Today seems to be the day that the crisis in Japan really slams markets.  The Nikkei is down 10% (almost 20% from pre-earthquake levels), while exchanges elsewhere are suffering sizeable drops.  As of this writing, our three major indices have lost over 1.5% …

In Wisconsin, There Is No Enthusiasm Gap  —  As if it weren't already apparent, Scott Walker has badly overreached:  —  Given the distance between now and the 2012 elections, I don't know how much this matters.  There's no guarantee that we'll still be talking about this in 20 months …

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)

The Electric Taxi Company You Could Have Called in 1900  —  On August 31, 1894, two young men rolled their new electric car onto what passed for a road in Philadelphia.  It would have been hot and sticky outside, a Friday at the end of a long summer that had seen an intense heat wave suffocate the city for most of July.

Dem leader: Opposition growing to short-term spending fixes  —  The Democrats' patience with short-term spending measures — like the one slated for a vote Tuesday — is growing thin, a leading House Democrat warned.  —  Rep. John Larson (Conn.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus …

Chávez Tries to Rally Venezuela Against a New Enemy: Breast Lifts  —  CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez is known to have expressed little patience for imported leisure pursuits like golf or Scotch whisky tippling.  Now he has reserved some ire for another practice …

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.