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 …

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.

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 …

Microsoft to Acquire Skype  —  Combined companies will benefit consumers, businesses and increase market opportunity.  —  Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: “MSFT") and Skype Global S.à r.l today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

TV Ratings Sunday: Finales Of ‘Brothers & Sisters,’ ‘CSI:Miami’ Up; ‘The Amazing Race’ Hits Low … CBS topped the night's adults 18-49 ratings with a less than impressive 2.3 rating average as the two hour finale of The Amazing Race was down 4% from last week to its lowest rating finale ever.

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 …

House defense committee to vote on anti-gay amendments  —  Amendments that could disrupt “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” repeal and mandate that marriages on military bases comply with the Defense of Marriage Act are set to see votes on Wednesday when a House defense panel takes up major Pentagon budget legislation.

National Emergency Alert System Set To Launch In NYC  —  NEW YORK, (CBSNewYork) - A new national alert system is set to begin in New York City that will alert the public to emergencies via cell phones.  —  Presidential and local emergency messages as well as Amber Alerts would appear …

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.

‘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) …

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 …

‘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.”

Whatever Happened to the Great Recession?  —  At least, that's what I would ask David Brooks, who managed to write an entire column on unemployment among adult men without mentioning the economic collapse of 2008.  His explanation for the 20 percent of American men (between the ages of 25 and 54) who don't work?

Ron Paul's land of second-rate values  —  Before last week's South Carolina Republican debate, Ron Paul supporters complained that their candidate was not getting the first-tier attention his polling and fundraising should bring.  It is true that Paul has often been overlooked and dismissed, as one might treat a slightly dotty uncle.