Kloppenburg declares victory  —  By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel  —  Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory Wednesday, based on results reported by the Associated Press.  —  The Associated Press shows Kloppenburg received 740,090 votes and incumbent David Prosser received 739,886 votes.

John Boehner Cries Amid Government Shutdown Standoff  —  ABC's Jonathan Karl reports:  —  He did it again.  —  John Boehner was driven to tears again today.  This time it happened at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans.  —  According to sources inside the meeting …

WSJ/NBC Poll: A Donald Trump Surprise  —  By Jonathan Weisman and Scott Greenberg  —  Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be the early front-runner in the largely unformed race for the Republican nomination for president, but real estate magnate Donald Trump may be a surprise contender …

Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts Announce New Agreement; Beck to ‘Transition Off’ Daily TV Program  —  Editor's note: After a great deal of speculation about Glenn Beck's future on television, here is the freshly-inked news release.  There will be a couple of key headlines out of this …

Republican Paul Ryan's budget proposal is brave, radical, and smart.  —  For the past 30 years, Republicans have been hypocrites about spending.  They've raged against big government without ever proposing the kinds of cuts necessary to bring federal expenditures in line with tax revenues.

Obama: “I Remember What It Was Like Pumping Gas”  —  President Obama, speaking to Al Sharpton's organization, says he is not “out of touch.”  “I remember that,” Obama added.  “I'm just going to be honest with you.  There's not much we can do next week or two weeks from now,” Obama said earlier today about gas prices....

Teen Finds Campaign Worker At Back Door At 3AM  —  ANKENY, Iowa — A 15-year-old girl found a campaign worker from Alabama banging on her Ankeny family's back door early Wednesday morning.  —  Chloe Steward told KCCI she heard her dog barking around 3 a.m. and went to investigate.

'I'd kill myself first!'  John Edwards ‘suicidal’ over facing jail, claim pals  —  Disgraced politician John Edwards is said to be deeply depressed - to the point of being suicidal - over the prospect of a criminal trial that could end with him being jailed if found guilty.

NBC's Brokaw: Saudis ‘So Unhappy’ With Obama They Sent Emissaries to China, Russia Seeking Enhanced Ties  —  (CNSNews.com) - Reporting from Baghdad, Iraq yesterday, NBC's Tom Brokaw said the Saudi Arabian monarchy is “so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak …

Judge gives ‘Juror No. 799’ indefinite jury duty after she makes racist remarks on questionnaire  —  An incensed federal judge sentenced a racist Brooklyn woman to indefinite jury duty on Tuesday after she trashed the NYPD and minorities.  —  “This is an outrage, and so are you!”

I can't believe my best friend is a Republican  —  I love everything about Janet — except how she stands for all the things I find bad and wrong in the world  —  Janet and I would likely have never met, save for the thing that unites so many women across divides of income and age: fat.

YouTube Will Get Major Revamp  —  Google Inc.'s YouTube video website is working on a major site overhaul to organize its content around “channels” as it positions itself for the rise of Internet-connected televisions that allow people to watch online video in their living rooms, according to people familiar with the matter.

Memory Hole Alert  —  Wow.  Yesterday afternoon I downloaded the tables from that Heritage report that's the basis for the Ryan plan.  The first page looked like this:  —  You can see the unemployment forecast, with the amazing 2.8 percent prediction, in the fourth set of figures.

U.S. Diplomat Sharply Criticizes China on Rights  —  SHANGHAI — The departing American ambassador to China, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., criticized this country's human rights record on Wednesday in some of the sharpest public comments here yet by an United States official since the Chinese government began …