First on CNN: Key social conservatives secretly meet to stop Romney in Iowa  —  Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) — Representatives for leading social conservative groups in Iowa held a secret meeting Monday as part of an effort with one main goal: find and support a Republican presidential candidate who can stop Mitt Romney in Iowa.

CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL  —  Full Transcript of CNN NATIONAL SECURITY DEBATE, 20:00-22:00  —  THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.  —  WOLF BLITZER, DEBATE MODERATOR AND CNN LEAD POLITICAL ANCHOR: Live from Washington, DC, for the Republican National Security Debate.

Katehi: Campus police were told not to use force against students  —  As the tent city on the University of California, Davis, tripled in size, Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi insisted Tuesday that the school's police department defied her orders when it used force against students in last week's pepper-spray fiasco.

German bond sale fails to attract buyers  —  Germany saw one of its poorest debt sales on Wednesday in what was seen as a failed auction by many market participants amid fears the eurozone's debt crisis is spreading all the way to Berlin.  —  Marc Ostwald, at Monument, said …

Fallon apologizes to Bachmann  —  (CNN) - TV show host Jimmy Fallon apologized to GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann via Twitter Tuesday for a song played as the presidential candidate walked on stage for her Monday interview on NBC's “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

New Trove of Stolen E-Mails From Climate Scientists Is Released  —  The anonymous hacker who shook the world of climate science two years ago by posting a trove of stolen e-mails delivered a new batch on Tuesday, stirring up climate-change contrarians a little more than a week before global negotiations …

Romney's Mormon Faith Likely a Factor in Primaries, Not in a General Election  —  Many Americans continue to see the Mormon faith as unfamiliar and different.  Half say they know little or nothing about Mormonism, half say it is a Christian religion while a third say it is not …

Demonstrators Plan to Occupy Retailers on Black Friday  —  Some demonstrators are planning to occupy retailers on Black Friday to protest “the business that are in the pockets of Wall Street.”  —  Organizers are encouraging consumers to either occupy or boycott retailers that are publicly traded …

Man catches 881-pound tuna, seized by feds  —  A Massachusetts fisherman pulled in an 881-pound tuna this week only to have the federal authorities take it away.  It sounds like a libertarian twist on the classic novella by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, but for Carlos Rafael, the saga is completely true.

Despite Threat of Cuts, Pentagon Officials Made No Contingency Plans  —  WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has painted such an apocalyptic vision of America's national security under $500 billion in automatic defense budget cuts that Pentagon officials said Tuesday they were pushing …

Senate Democrats ready to move $400 billion in new legislation  —  After failing to reach a deal to reduce the deficit, the Senate will move next month to take up legislation that could add more than $400 billion to the deficit.  —  All of the proposals, such as the extension of the payroll tax cut …

James Murdoch quits the boards of Sun and Times  —  James Murdoch has dramatically resigned as a director of the companies that publish The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun.  —  The surprise move, which has seen Rupert Murdoch's son quit a string of directorships at News International …

Visions of LoLo, a Neighborhood Rising From Landfill  —  New Yorkers are fond, perhaps overly so, of assembling ever-creative names for newly hot neighborhoods, from NoMad (north of Madison Square Park) to SoBro (the South Bronx) to BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens).  —  Multimedia

Occupy protests cost nation's cities at least $13M  —  NEW YORK (AP) — During the first two months of the nationwide Occupy protests, the movement that is demanding more out of the wealthiest Americans cost local taxpayers at least $13 million in  —  and other municipal services, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

Republican Might Quit Labor Board  —  The National Labor Relations Board, the subject of particularly intense partisan sniping this year, could soon be completely paralyzed.  —  The labor board's sole Republican member, Brian E. Hayes, has threatened to resign to deny the N.L.R.B …

Rep. Barney Frank: Supercommittee failure ‘good news’ for Dems  —  Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said the congressional supercommittee's failure Monday to come to an agreement on spending reforms was “good news” because it will help to end the Bush-era tax cuts and give Democrats more bargaining power in budget negotiations.