Boehner Outlines Demands on Debt Limit Fight  —  WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner said Monday that Republicans would insist on trillions of dollars in federal spending cuts in exchange for their support of an increase in the federal debt limit sought by the Obama administration to prevent a government default later this year.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver announce separation  —  The former first lady has moved out after 25 years of marriage.  Maria Shriver helped bolster Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign against charges that he groped women during his movie career.  —  Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver …

U.S. Was Braced for Fight With Pakistanis in Bin Laden Raid  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama insisted that the assault force hunting down Osama bin Laden last week be large enough to fight its way out of Pakistan if confronted by hostile local police officers and troops, senior administration and military officials said Monday.

Chomsky's Follies  —  The professor's pronouncements about Osama Bin Laden are stupid and ignorant.  —  Anybody visiting the Middle East in the last decade has had the experience: meeting the hoarse and aggressive person who first denies that Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the destruction …

Gingrich Set to Run, With Wife in Central Role  —  WASHINGTON — Callista Bisek's friends from rural Wisconsin were stunned when, well over a decade ago, she confided that she was secretly dating an older, married man: Newt Gingrich.  —  Still in her 20s when they met …

Perry declines Obama's invite  —  Rick Perry has declined the White House's request that he greet President Obama when Air Force One lands in Texas on Tuesday, the Republican governor's office says.  —  “We did try to arrange something with the White House,” Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Perry, told POLITICO.

Beyond Obama's Bin Laden Bounce  —  A week after the news broke of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden, bettors at Intrade, a political futures market, are barely any more likely to think that Barack Obama will win re-election.  —  As of this writing, Mr. Obama's Democrats are given …

‘Burn a Bush’?  Michelle Obama invites rapper Common to a poetry reading  —  First Lady Michelle Obama has scheduled a poetry evening for Wednesday, and she's invited several poets, including a successful Chicago poet and rapper, Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., AKA “Common.”

Health Care Reform Appeal to be Heard by Panel Appointed by Democratic Presidents  —  ABC News' Ariane de Vogue (@Arianedevogue) reports:  —  Today in Richmond, as Justice Department lawyers prepare to defend the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals …

Suspect in flight disturbance had Calif. ID  —  SAN FRANCISCO - The passengers sat stunned as they watched a man walk quickly toward the front of American Airlines Flight 1561 as it was descending toward San Francisco.  He was screaming and then began pounding on the cockpit door.

Republican rift widens on Medicare  —  A deep rift is opening wider and wider in the Republican Party over controversial proposals to cut Medicare.  —  Senate Republicans have decided to avoid jeopardizing their chances of capturing the upper chamber in next year's elections and will not echo …

Danger: Falling Tyrants  —  The Jordanian monarchy represents the sort of regime the United States finds itself defending.  It is not the most difficult regime in the Middle East to defend—throughout the early stages of the Arab revolt, Bahrain's royal family, engaged in the often violent suppression …

In Reversal, City University Trustees Approve Honorary Degree for Tony Kushner  —  In a hastily convened meeting of their executive committee, City University of New York trustees approved an honorary degree for Tony Kushner on Monday night to try to quell widespread criticism over the board's decision …

‘Introduction to Labor Studies’ - My First-Hand Account  —  My name is Philip Christofanelli.  I was a student in the University of Missouri's “Introduction to Labor Studies” course.  The class was taught simultaneously by Professor Don Giljum of University of Missouri-Saint Louis (UMSL) …

Microsoft Near Deal to Acquire Skype  —  Software Giant Could Pay Nearly $8 Billion for Company  —  Microsoft Corp. is close to a deal to buy Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA for between $7 billion and $8 billion—the most aggressive move yet by Microsoft to play …

Poll: Economy fears temper Obama's bin Laden bump  —  But president sees significant jump in questions about leadership, national security, foreign affairs  —  Below:  —  Deputy political director  —  WASHINGTON — In the days after Barack Obama ordered the successful mission to kill Osama bin Laden …

National Health Preview  —  RomneyCare's bad outcomes keep coming.  —  The ObamaCare preview that Massachusetts has been conducting for the last several years grows more ominous by the month, not that anyone in Washington is paying attention.  So let's check on the Bay State's latest warning …

Obama's illegal alien nation  —  Administration fails to enforce program to deport criminals  —  President Obama is in El Paso Tuesday to give a speech on what he calls “the broken immigration system.”  He'd know because he's the one helping break it.  Nowhere is this more apparent …

The Tragedy of Sarah Palin  —  From the moment Sarah Palin's acceptance speech electrified the Republican convention, she was seen as an unbending, hard-charging, red-meat ideologue—to which soon was added “thin-skinned” and “vindictive.”  But a look at what Palin did while in office in Alaska …