Mark Halperin apologizes for Obama gaffe  —  Mark Halperin, editor-at-large for Time, called President Obama “a dick” on Wednesday on a popular MSNBC morning show and then quickly apologized.  —  “I thought he was a dick yesterday,” Halperin, who also is a senior political analyst for MSNBC …

How you know the negotiations have truly failed  —  (SHAWN THEW VIA BLOOMBERG) The best advice I've gotten for assessing the debt-ceiling negotiations was to “watch for the day when the White House goes public.”  As long as the Obama administration was refusing to attack Republicans publicly …

U.S. Drops Deportation Proceedings Against Immigrant in Same-Sex Marriage  —  In a decision that could have far-reaching effects on immigration cases involving same-sex couples, federal officials have canceled the deportation of a Venezuelan man in New Jersey who is married to an American man, the couple's lawyer said Wednesday.

Clinton: U.S. pursuing ‘limited contacts’ with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood  —  BUDAPEST, Hungary — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that the Obama administration was pursuing an approach of “limited contacts” with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood — a policy, she said …

Bachmann's Husband Calls Homosexuals ‘Barbarians’ Who ‘Need To Be Educated’ And ‘Disciplined’  —  When trying to figure out where presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) gets her stringent, anti-gay views, you only have to look as far as her husband.

Real Men Get Their Facts Straight  —  “It's between 100,000 and 300,000 child sex slaves in the United States today,” Ashton Kutcher told CNN's Piers Morgan on April 18.  That, says Kutcher, is how many kids are lost to prostitution in America every single year.

Fed hands banks a win with debit card rule  —  Banks might have lost the broader war over debit-card fees, but they scored a small victory Wednesday when the Federal Reserve proposed a fee less severe than originally intended.  —  The central bank's decision brought to a close a long and contentious lobbying battle on Capitol Hill.

WOMAN SEATED NEAR BECK AT MOVIE CLAIMS INNOCENCE...BUT WHAT DOES TWITTER TELL US...  (WITH UPDATES!)  —  On Tuesday, Glenn Beck told his radio and TV audiences how he and his family were harassed during an outing to an outdoor movie in New York City's Bryant Park.  —  You can listen to Glenn describe what happened here.

To Catch a Predator host who traps sex perverts in TV stings ‘caught cheating on his wife’... by hidden cameras  —  He's made his name with a controversial show that catches would-be internet sex perverts in televised stings.  —  But now Chris Hansen has found himself on the receiving end …

HRC store vandalized; radical queer group claims responsibility  —  WASHINGTON — The Dupont Circle Human Rights Campaign store was vandalized last night by a group claiming to be paying homage to the Stonewall Riots.  —  Damage to the HRC store in Dupont Circle was minimal.  (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Monthly Combat Deaths in Iraq at 3-Year High  —  BAGHDAD — The American military announced on Thursday that three more American soldiers had been killed this week, as the combat-related deaths for United States forces in Iraq reached a monthly toll not seen since 2008.

Obama says his 12-year-old is 13  —  Malia Obama has a few days to go before her 13th birthday on July 4.  —  AP Photo  —  President Obama, who has expressed his fears about his daughter Malia becoming a teenager next month, is apparently dreading her birthday so much that for a brief moment on Wednesday …

Obama, Romney to go head to head in Pennsylvania Thursday  —  President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) are set to do battle Thursday when both visit the southeast Pennsylvania area.  —  Romney will hold a press conference Thursday afternoon at a factory in Allentown …

Prescriptions to Revive Recovery  —  The U.S. economy resembles a patient who survived a heart attack, and tells his doctor: “I took your advice, swallowed the pills and I still don't feel well.”  —  We were warned the post-recession recovery, now marking its second anniversary, would be painfully slow.

California tells online retailers to start collecting sales taxes from customers  —  Beginning Friday, Amazon.com and other large out-of-state retailers will be required to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make online.  —  Workers push carts full of merchandise …

U.S. drone targets two leaders of Somali group allied with al-Qaeda, official says  —  A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S. military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday.

FBI Invited Controversial Church To Talk To Agents … The Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for picketing soldiers' funerals with signs like “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Hates the USA.”  —  Yet the FBI recently invited leaders of the fundamentalist church to the Quantico Marine base …

Obama Blasts Private Jet Tax Breaks Created by His Own Stimulus  —  The chief economic culprit of President Obama's Wednesday press conference was undoubtedly “corporate jets.”  He mentioned them on at least six occasions, each time offering their owners as an example of a group that should be paying more in taxes.