CASE CLOSED!  CONGRESSMAN WEINER WAS FRAMED!  (An important update to “The Weiner affair: Close to solution (but I need your help!)”  —  WARNING — NOW HEAR THIS (added at 10:13, EST): I welcome comments from people who hope to prove me wrong.  Disagreement is fine.

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 …

Romney will say Obama ‘has failed America’ in 2012 launch speech  —  President Obama “has failed America,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) will say in a Thursday speech in New Hampshire launching his presidential campaign.  —  Romney's speech to formally declare that he'll again seek …

Ensuring your information is safe online  —  The Internet has been an amazing force for good in the world—opening up communications, boosting economic growth and promoting free expression.  But like all technologies, it can also be used for bad things.  Today, despite the efforts …

Employment Data May Be the Key to the President's Job  —  WASHINGTON — No American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has won a second term in office when the unemployment rate on Election Day topped 7.2 percent.  —  Seventeen months before the next election, it is increasingly clear …

Global war on drugs has ‘failed’ say former leaders  —  Opiate use increased by 35% worldwide from 1998-2008, in spite of anti-drug efforts  —  The global war on drugs has “failed” according to a new report by group of politicians and former world leaders.

Discovery of ‘worms from hell’ deep beneath Earth's surface raises new questions  —  For the first time, scientists have found complex, multi-celled creatures living a mile and more below the planet's surface — raising new possibilities about both the spread of life on Earth and potential subsurface life on other planets and moons.

Tornadoes Tear Through Mass. Leaving Four Dead, Dozens Injured  —  Multiple tornadoes slammed western and central Massachusetts Wednesday, leaving a path of destruction that destroyed buildings, flipped vehicles and left at least four people dead and an unknown number injured.

If we need taxes, why not pollution taxes?  —  Let's start with the obvious: Most Democrats (and, for that matter, most of the bipartisan deficit panels that are churning out endless white papers right now) agree that we can't tackle our long-term debt issues through spending cuts alone.

Why the health service needs surgery  —  An ageing population and medical advances will lead to a financial crisis if nothing is done, says Andrew Lansley.  —  There is a potential funding gap in the NHS of nearly £20 billion a year  —  Eight weeks ago, we set up the NHS Future Forum …

‘Handcuffed by policy’: Fire crews watch man die  —  First responders, up to 75 others watch suicidal man stand in water for an hour until he drowns  —  Below:  —  msnbc.com staff and news service reports  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Fire crews and police could only watch after a man waded …

Voting Rights Act: I was wrong about racial gerrymandering  —  WASHINGTON — I won't procrastinate.  I'll get the most difficult part of this column over right now: I was wrong.  I was shortsighted, naïve and narrow-minded to endorse the concept of drawing Congressional districts to take racial demographics into account.

Dear Foreign Visitors to NY: Hotel Maids Are Not Meant To Be Laid  —  The words may rhyme but you horny dudes who look at women covered by hefty sacks have it all wrong.  In our country, we don't keep housekeepers for the pleasure of a male as you do in your country....just sayin.

The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable  —  Making small talk with your pot dealer sucks.  Buying cocaine can get you shot.  What if you could buy and sell drugs online like books or light bulbs?  Now you can: Welcome to Silk Road.  —  About three weeks ago …

Health reform lawsuit in jeopardy?  —  A federal appeals panel questioned Wednesday whether a conservative legal center's challenge to the health law is still valid after the revelation last week that a key plaintiff had already bought health insurance.  —  The Thomas More Law Center told …

Northern Exposure  —  A prudent Canada shows up debt-ridden America.  —  Imagine this scenario: a federal government runs a large deficit.  The deficits are so large, in fact, that the ratio of federal debt to Gross Domestic Product approaches 70 percent.  Meanwhile, voters have gotten used to large federal spending programs.