Paul leads in Iowa  —  Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa.  He's at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, 4% for Jon Huntsman, and 2% for Gary Johnson.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il, 69, Has Died  —  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died.  He was 69.  —  Kim's death was announced Monday by state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

NY lawmaker: GOP taking ‘principled’ stance on payroll tax bill  —  Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) responded to criticism that House Republicans were playing politics with the payroll tax cut, saying the GOP was “principled,” trying to “do what's right,” and suggesting that her party's stance …

14-Year-Old Challenges Perry's Anti-Gay Views  —  A 14-year-old bisexual high school student challenged Rick Perry on his support for reinstating Don't Ask, Don't Tell during an event in Decorah, Iowa, asking the Texas governor why he is “so opposed to gays serving openly in the military …

California politician advocates assassination of Obama and family  —  Like this?  Subscribe to get instant updates.  —  Facebook faux pas: California libertarian and Tea Party darling Jules Manson is caught calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama and his children.

Retirement Deal Keeps Bain Money Flowing to Romney  —  Almost 13 years ago, Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the successful private equity firm he had helped start, and moved to Utah to rescue the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and begin a second career in public life.

Will China Break?  —  Consider the following picture: Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble.  There was rapid growth in credit — with much of that growth taking place not through traditional banking …

Bye-bye, Keynes?  —  “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”  —  The eclipse of Keynesian economics proceeds.  When Keynes wrote “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” …

Exclusive: Secret U.S., Taliban talks reach turning point  —  (Reuters) - After 10 months of secret dialogue with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, senior U.S. officials say the talks have reached a critical juncture and they will soon know whether a breakthrough is possible …

TRENDING: Bachmann pauses in Iowa tour to talk ‘myth’ of Kinsey Report  —  Clarion, Iowa (CNN) - Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann continued her super-charged bus tour across Iowa Sunday, attending several more events to shake hands and sign autographs.

For Election Year, MTV Drops ‘Choose or Lose’ Slogan  —  After nearly 20 years of “Choose or Lose,” MTV is changing the name of its election season campaign.  —  The youth cable channel's coverage will be labeled “Power of 12,” a nod to both the election year and the notion that 18 …

Don't Tax the Rich.  Tax Inequality Itself.  —  THE progressive reformer and eminent jurist Louis D. Brandeis once said, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”  Brandeis lived at a time when enormous disparities between …