Three Takeaways From South Carolina  —  1) There is no good news buried in here for Mitt Romney.  None.  As of this writing, Mitt Romney is leading in three counties in South Carolina: Charleston, Beaufort (Hilton Head) and Richland (Columbia).  He lost fast-growing, coastal Horry County, home of Myrtle Beach, by 15 points.

Giffords to step down from Congress  —  U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will step down from Congress this week to focus on her recovery, her staff announced Sunday.  —  “I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week,” Giffords said in a video message.

An open letter to Republican leaders  —  Dear Govs. Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, John Kasich, Bobby Jindal; Sens. Jon Kyl, Marco Rubio and Jim DeMint; and Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and Mike Pence (R-Ind.):  —  You've each declined to run for the presidency or even endorse one of the final candidates.

Joe Paterno, Longtime Penn State Coach, Dies at 85  —  Joe Paterno, who won more games than any other major-college football coach, and who became the face of Penn State University and a symbol of integrity in collegiate athletics only to be fired during the 2011 season amid a child sexual-abuse scandal …

Romney partially caves on tax returns  —  Watching Mitt Romney discuss his willingness to disclose his tax returns, it's been hard not to marvel at the rapid evolution.  It was only about a month ago when he was asked whether he'd release his tax returns, and Romney replied, “I doubt it.”

Showtime at the Apollo  —  FOR eight seconds, we saw the president we had craved for three years: cool, joyous, funny, connected.  —  “I, I'm so in love with you,” Barack Obama crooned to a thrilled crowd at a fund-raiser at the Apollo in Harlem on Thursday night, doing a seductive imitation as Al Green himself looked on.

2012: The Year We Put an End to the War on Women  —  GOP Choice Women , Romney Choice Women , Congress Women Choice , Pro Choice Naral , Pro Choice Politics , Pro Choice Women , Republicans Roe v Wade , Roe v Wade GOP , Roe v Wade Women , War On Women , Politics News  —  2011 was the year of the War on Women.

Muslim Brotherhood Wins 47% of Egypt Assembly Seats  —  CAIRO — Egyptian authorities confirmed Saturday that a political coalition dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, the 84-year-old group that virtually invented political Islam, had won about 47 percent of the seats in the first Parliament elected since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.