Komen caved.  Or did it?  —  As you may have heard, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation just announced that it was reversing its decision to ban Planned Parenthood from applying for grants to cover breast cancer screenings — after a massive outcry that spread from women's groups to social media to Capitol Hill.

Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles To Fresh 30 Year Low  —  A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55%.

Newt Gingrich's Nevada campaign unraveling  —  LAS VEGAS — Newt Gingrich is not on TV here.  His daily events have slowed to a trickle.  He's got a barebones staff working in a tiny space rented just 2 weeks ago.  —  The most attention he's received since arriving in Nevada came with his snub of the state's popular governor.

Mitt Romney splits with Brett O'Donnell  —  A GOP operative who won plaudits for bolstering Mitt Romney's recent debate performances is not being retained by the frontrunner's campaign, an apparent victim of internal tensions over staff receiving too much credit for the candidate's comeback, POLITICO has learned.

Santorum Fails to Qualify for Indiana Ballot  —  Election officials still tallying signatures for Gingrich  —  Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has failed to qualify for the Indiana ballot.  —  Listen:  —  Presidential candidates need 500 signatures in each of Indiana's nine congressional districts.

Faced with good news about economy, Romney dissolves into incoherence  —  Since Mitt Romney announced his candidacy last June, he has continually made two core claims about Obama's economic record, each of which contradicts the other.  Depending on the moment, Romney has said either:

Reid: This year's budget is done  —  Senate Democratic leaders said they don't expect a fiscal 2013 budget to reach the floor this year because spending levels were set last summer under the debt-ceiling agreement.  —  “We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it's done …

Ben Gazzara, a Risk-Taking Actor of Stage and Screen, Dies at 81  —  Ben Gazzara, an intense actor whose long career included playing Brick in the original “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway, roles in influential films by John Cassavetes and work with several generations of top Hollywood directors …

Anti-Abortion Komen VP Also Anti-Gay  —  Karen Handel had some choice words for gays when she ran last year for Governor of Georgia, from this interview with the Jim Galloway at the AJC.  —  KH: I've been very clear.  And you know, as a Christian, marriage is between a man and a woman.

Santorum To Gay Man: You Don't Deserve ‘Privilege’ Of Marriage Because Gay Unions Don't ‘Benefit Society’  —  Rick Santorum told a gay man in Fulton, Missouri Friday afternoon that he didn't deserve the “privilege” of marriage because his same-sex relationship does not “benefit” society in the same way that opposite-sex marriage does.

Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million At Private Meeting To Beat Obama … Barack Obama , Newt Gingrich 2012 , Barack Obama 2012 , Newt Gingrich , Obama , President Obama , Video , Charles Koch , David Koch , Koch Brothers , Sheldon Adelson , Winning Our Future , Ken Griffin …

Senate Republicans to challenge recess appointments in court  —  Republican senators announced Friday that they plan to challenge President Obama's recent controversial appointments in court.  —  Thirty-nine GOP senators have signed onto a letter announcing their intention to file …

TPMDC  —  Bait And Switch: GOP Leaders Renege On Debt Limit Deal Defense Cuts  —  Republican leaders in Congress have all but reneged on a key agreement they reached with the White House last summer rather than reconsider their unwavering stance against new tax revenue.

Army Silenced Chaplains Last Sunday  —  In Catholic Churches across the country, parishioners were read letters from the pulpit this weekend from bishops in their diocese about the mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services giving Catholics a year before they'll be required …

GOP lawmaker walked out on Obama's speech at National Prayer Breakfast  —  Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.) walked out of President Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, his spokesman confirmed to The Hill.  —  Jen Talaber said the five-term lawmaker “left quietly” in the middle of the president's remarks.

A.G. SCHNEIDERMAN ANNOUNCES MAJOR LAWSUIT AGAINST NATION'S LARGEST BANKS FOR DECEPTIVE & FRAUDULENT USE OF ELECTRONIC MORTGAGE REGISTRY  —  Complaint Charges Use Of MERS By Bank Of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, And Wells Fargo Resulted In Fraudulent Foreclosure Filings

The 2016 Election, Already Upon Us  —  DISTANT as it may now seem, with the Republican race dominating the news and President Obama sitting in the White House, the Democrats are not all that far from the tumult of another nominating contest themselves.  —  No matter what happens on Election …