Nation's Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows  —  Americans are more pessimistic about the nation's economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama's first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession …

The Electoral Implications of Ensign's Resignation  —  Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada is expected to appoint Dean Heller, currently the Republican incumbent in the state's Second Congressional District, to replace Senator John Ensign, who is resigning.  —  Mr. Heller was already expected …

9/11 Responders To Be Warned They Will Be Screened By FBI's Terrorism Watch List (EXCLUSIVE) … WASHINGTON — A provision in the new 9/11 health bill may be adding insult to injury for people who fell sick after their service in the aftermath of the 2001 Al Qaeda attacks, The Huffington Post has learned.

Birtherism: Where it all began  —  Just when it appeared that public interest was fading, celebrity developer Donald Trump has revived the theory that President Barack Obama was born overseas and helped expose the depth to which the notion has taken root—a New York Times poll Thursday found that a plurality of Republicans believe it.

Obama makes ‘birther’ joke at fundraiser  —  President Obama on Thursday lightened up talk of high gas prices and the budget deficit on his West Coast swing with a joke about those who question his citizenship.  —  “A lot of you got involved when the prospect of electing Barack Hussein Obama to the Oval Office was slim.

Patients Are Not Consumers  —  Earlier this week, The Times reported on Congressional backlash against the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a key part of efforts to rein in health care costs.  This backlash was predictable; it is also profoundly irresponsible, as I'll explain in a minute.

Krauthammer: Trump is running  —  Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer says Donald Trump reached out to him after a piece he wrote that laced into the developer's potential 2012 bid — a phone call he said convinced him The Donald is running for president.

Media's Spotlight Shines Less Brightly on Palin  —  One of the few pieces of statistical evidence that we can look toward at this early stage of the presidential campaign is the number of media hits that each candidate is receiving.  Apart from being interesting unto itself, it's plausible that this metric has some predictive power.

Ayn Rand's adult-onset adolescence  —  The movie “Atlas Shrugged,” adapted from Ayn Rand's 1957 novel by the same name, is a triumph of cinematic irony.  A work that lectures us endlessly on the moral superiority of heroic achievement is itself a model of mediocrity.

More Republican Congressmen Face Town Hall Backlash Over Tax Breaks For Wealthy And Medicare Privatization  —  Earlier this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) held town halls across his district to defend his budget's plan to end Medicare and extend tax cuts for the wealthy.

Federal labor board seeks to ground Boeing  —  Can federal bureaucrats tell a private company where to build a factory?  —  Members of President Obama's National Labor Relations Board think they can.  In a decision that even the New York Times is describing as “highly unusual for the federal government …

Writing Teachers: Still Crazy After All These Years  —  After spending four depressing days this month at a meeting of 3,000 writing teachers in Atlanta, I can tell you that their parent group, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, is not really interested in teaching students to write and communicate clearly.

Obama: Think about ditching those gas-guzzling SUVs  —  President Obama urged the public Thursday to think about trading in their SUVs for more fuel-efficient vehicles, arguing that gas-guzzlers keep the country dependent on foreign oil.  —  “When you do decide to buy a new car …

Earth Day co-founder killed, composted girlfriend  —  Ira Einhorn preached against Vietnam War and violence, but had dark side  —  Below:  —  Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970.

Bright, Careful and Sadistic: Profiling Long Island's Mystery Serial Killer  —  He is most likely a white male in his mid-20s to mid-40s.  He is married or has a girlfriend.  He is well educated and well spoken.  He is financially secure, has a job and owns an expensive car or truck.

Large Tax Increases are Not A Semantic Question  —  Yesterday I argued that simply covering our medium-term fiscal problems with tax hikes was not going to be easy or relatively painless; we'd have to go back to the Clinton era tax rates, and then hike rates again by at least a third, possibly more.

EXCLUSIVE: MEL GIBSON FINALLY TALKS  —  EXCLUSIVE: On May 6th, Mel Gibson's much-delayed comeback picture, The Beaver, will open in limited release.  It's directed by his longtime friend and co-star Jodie Foster.  The movie has already garnered reviews praising Gibson's performance as …

Apple, Google Collect User Data  —  Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Google Inc.'s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal—intensifying concerns over privacy and the widening trade in personal data.

Iraq Troop Talks Falter  —  Allies Want U.S. to Stay Past Withdrawal Date but Baghdad Fears Unrest  —  WASHINGTON—Senior U.S. and Iraqi military officials have been in negotiations about keeping some 10,000 American troops in Iraq beyond the scheduled withdrawal of all U.S. forces at year's end …

Millionaire Tax Didn't Chase the Rich From New Jersey, Study Says  —  Anti-tax advocates contend that higher taxes on the wealthy lead to millionaire flight.  They say this has been seen in Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York.  The rich are mobile, they say.