Rep. Anthony Weiner 'can't say with certitude' photo isn't him  —  Rep. Anthony Weiner says he “can't say with certitude” that the lewd photo of a man's crotch sent using his Twitter account to one of his followers isn't of him.  —  “I didn't send that picture out,” Weiner said in an interview with NBC News.

CNN Poll: Majority gives thumbs down to Ryan plan  —  Washington (CNN) - A new national poll indicates that a majority of Americans don't like what they've heard so far about congressional Republicans' plans to change Medicare.  —  According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey …

GOP lawmaker rejects White House trip, says he won't be ‘lectured to’ by Obama  —  A freshman GOP lawmaker rejected an invitation to the White House on Wednesday, saying he didn't want to be “lectured” by President Obama.  —  “I have respectfully declined the president's invitation to the White House today …

Romney leads in Iowa, Cain surging  —  Mitt Romney has the lead in PPP's first Iowa poll since Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump exited the race, but with six different candidates polling in double digits it's clear this thing is wide open.  —  Romney polls at 21%.  Sarah Palin and Herman Cain are tied for second at 15%.

Gov. Christie arrives at son's high school baseball game in State Police helicopter  —  TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie arrived at his son's baseball game this afternoon aboard a State Police helicopter.  —  Right before the lineup cards were being exchanged on the field …

CASE CLOSED!  CONGRESSMAN WEINER WAS FRAMED!  (An important update to “The Weiner affair: Close to solution (but I need your help!)”  —  Readers — please pass along the information here, including the all-important update.  In that update, you'll find that we have made an important breakthrough.

Wall Street Baffled by Slowing Economy, Low Yields: Trader  —  Wall Street is having a hard time figuring out what to do now that the U.S. economy appears to be sputtering and yields are so low, Peter Yastrow, market strategist for Yastrow Origer, told CNBC.

Matt Drudge's disgusting race war awareness campaign  —  Matt Drudge's non-political obsessions used to be harmless things like “extreme weather” and “pictures of Olympic wrestlers.”  Since the election of Barack Obama, though, Drudge — the proto-blogger and reclusive creator of the noted Courier …

Palin meets with Fox News officials  —  New York (CNN) - Sarah Palin met with officials at Fox News in midtown Manhattan for over an hour on Wednesday.  —  After checking out of her Jersey City hotel earlier in the day for the fourth day of her “One Nation” bus tour, Palin told a gaggle …

RE: Palin and Trump  —  Jonah, I for one am grateful to Sarah Palin for the exuberance with which she effused over Trump yesterday.  In deciding whom to support for president, we look for clues to the values and character of the various candidates.  To the millions of people in America …

Sen. DeMint mulls White House bid  —  Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says he is considering running for president after frustrated conservative activists have pleaded with him to run.  —  DeMint told The Hill that he has discussed a White House bid with his wife and will pray on the question …

One Person, One Vote?  Not Exactly  —  E-mail: leonhardt@nytimes.com; twitter.com/DLeonhardt  —  Two economists, Brian Knight and Nathan Schiff, set out a few years ago to determine how much Iowa, New Hampshire and other early-voting states affected presidential nominations.

77,000 fed employees paid more than governors  —  Government salaries put under scrutiny  —  ** FILE ** A congressional study revealed that 7,283 federal employees in Maryland made more than Gov. Martin O'Malley's $150,000 salary in 2009.  (Associated Press)

Our Current Time for Choosing  —  Anyone who disagrees with Paul Ryan's Medicare reforms has a moral obligation to propose an alternative.  —  This year marks the centennial anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth—and America finds itself at a crossroads that brings to mind the title …

APNewsBreak: HHS rejects Indiana Medicaid plan  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Health and Human Services Department is telling the state of Indiana that its Medicaid plan, which bans funding to Planned Parenthood, is illegal and must be changed.  —  In a letter sent to Indiana's Medicaid director …

150 Economists Back US Republicans in Debt Fight  —  More than 150 economists back U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner's call to match any increase in the debt limit with spending cuts of equal size, according to a letter released by the Republican leader's office Wednesday.

Some Immigrants Turn to Tea Party  —  Lolita Mancheno-Smoak, an immigrant from Ecuador who once dreamed of becoming her country's president, has found an unlikely home in the tea party movement.  —  When she launched her campaign for county school board last week at Brion's Grille in Fairfax …