5.9 magnitude quake rocks East Coast  —  A 5.9 magnitude quake center in Virginia rocks the East Coast, with tremors felt as far south as North Carolina, as far north as Buffalo and Boston, and as far west as Detroit.  —  Update at 2:30 p.m. ET: The Washington Post quotes a a USGS official as saying …

Perry takes the lead in Iowa  —  Rick Perry is the new leader in Iowa:  —  The race is pretty close four ways in Iowa but Rick Perry is the new favorite among Republican voters in the state.  Among announced candidates he's at 22% to 19% for Mitt Romney, 18% for Michele Bachmann, and 16% for Ron Paul.

Conservative elites pine for 2012 hero  —  It's a tough time to be a conservative intellectual.  —  From the Weekly Standard to the Wall Street Journal, on the pages of policy periodicals and opinion sections, the egghead right's longing for a presidential candidate of ideas …

Rebels Invade Qaddafi Compound  —  TRIPOLI, Libya — Rebel fighters flooded into Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's sprawling compound on Tuesday, overwhelming what remained of its defenses and running pell-mell through the grounds, as the crackle of gunfire and rumble of explosions spread across …

Rick Perry holds the record on executions  —  Darren McCollester/GETTY IMAGES - PEMBROKE, NH - AUGUST 18: Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks to workers at Epoch Homes August 18, 2011 in Pembroke, New Hampshire.  Perry has been campaigning since he declared …

How Democrats Hurt Jobs  —  The airplane's aft section arrived early Monday morning.  That's what they'd been waiting for at the final assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C. They already had the wings, the nose, the tail — all the other major sections of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner.

Perry campaign distances him from book's call for repeal of 16th Amendment  —  Rick Perry's campaign is now distancing him from another controversial claim in his book: That we should repeal the 16th Amendment and replace it with a “Fair Tax,” a radical idea that's still rattling around in some precincts on the right.

National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama  —  The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama's watch.  —  The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office.  The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion.

Rare Strong Earthquake Hits Colorado  —  DENVER — The largest natural earthquake in Colorado in more than a century struck Monday night in the state's southeast corner, but there had been no reports of damage or injuries.  —  The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 and centered …

Here's Why Bank Of America's Stock Is Collapsing Again  —  It's deja vu all over again.  —  The stock of a humongous American bank, Bank of America (BAC), is collapsing.  —  This is stoking fears that Bank of America will go bust, taking the whole economy down with it.  —  Why is Bank of America's stock tanking?

How Is Warren Buffett Like the Pope?  —  by Richard A. Epstein (Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow and member of the Property Rights, Freedom, and Prosperity Task Force)  —  They are both dead wrong on economic policy.  —  The terrible economic news from both Europe and the United States …

Beware the tea party, Jesse Jackson, Frederica Wilson and black Democrats say at jobs meeting  —  Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus are in Miami Tuesday to host a jobs fair, part of their five-city tour to draw attention to high unemployment, particularly in the black community.

Spending, not entitlements, created huge deficit  —  It's conventional wisdom in Washington to blame the federal government's dire financial outlook on runaway entitlement spending.  Unless we rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the conventional wisdom goes, the federal government is headed for disaster.

Obama Golfing in Martha's Vineyard When Earthquake Hit  —  ABC News' Stephanie Smith and David Kerley report:  —  Talk about early warning.  The majority of he White House press corps, camped out at a hotel at Martha's Vineyard, was keeping a close eye on our computers and emails.

Let's Be Honest: We're in a Depression, Not a Recession, And There's No End In Sight  —  This article is a contribution to ‘Is There Anything That Can Be Done?  A TNR Symposium On The Economy.’ Click here to read other contributions to the series.  —  If the notion that we are merely living through …

Dean of Columbia College Resigns After Two Years  —  The dean of Columbia College has abruptly resigned over what she called administrative changes that would diminish or eliminate her authority, leaving the undergraduate division of Columbia University without a leader two weeks before the start of classes.

What's Obama Reading?  —  The reports are in about the books President Obama is looking at on his annual trip to Martha's Vineyard.  According to reports from the Los Angeles Times and the AP, Obama purchased five books on his trip to the Vineyard bookseller Bunch of Grapes: Marianna Baer's Frost …

Washington Is Eliminating Red Tape  —  New reforms will save Americans billions without sacrificing public health or safety.  —  Early this year, President Obama ordered an unprecedentedly ambitious government-wide review of existing federal regulations, emphasizing that we must “measure …