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.

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%.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

A Venture Capitalist Makes The Case Against Software Patents  —  Here's a great little post from venture capitalist Fred Wilson venting his rage at America's growing empire of software patents.  Key sentence: “these ‘developers in a garage’ can't afford lawyers to represent themselves in a fight with a patent troll.”

From New York Democrats, ‘schadenfreude’  —  Anthony Weiner, who spent most of his career as a media-friendly center-right (by local standards) outer borough Democrat in the Chuck Schumer model, rocketed to national attention in the health care debate with a daring, if fruitless, gambit in support of single-payer health care.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Kapanke hopes public employees “are sleeping” during recall vote  —  By Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel  —  State Sen. Dan Kapanke, a Republican facing a possible recall election, says he's got one huge obstacle that he must overcome to keep his seat.  —  All the government workers in his district.