Poll: Rick Santorum takes slight lead in GOP race  —  CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.  —  Rick Santorum has pulled slightly ahead of Mitt Romney in Republican primary voters' preference for the presidential nomination …

Media Matters memo called for hiring private investigators ‘to look into the personal lives’ of Fox employees  —  A little after 1 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2009, Karl Frisch emailed a memo to his bosses, Media Matters for America founder David Brock and president Eric Burns.

Protesters Shout Down Santorum As He Speaks Against Marriage Equality In Washington State  —  Occupy Wall Street protesters nearly drowned out Rick Santorum for 44 minutes as he tried to deliver remarks at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Washington on Monday night.

Romney op-ed: Taxpayers should get GM shares' proceeds  —  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns in Portland, Maine.  The candidate contends that the Obama administration should sell its ownership in GM and return the money to taxpayers.  (Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press)

Republicans Shift Tactics on Payroll Tax Cut Extension  —  In a major tactical shift, House Republican leaders Monday said they would sign off on a payroll tax cut extension that is not paid for, marking an attempt to both pressure Democrats and get the issue behind them.

Fox News ‘course correction’ rankles some  —  As a white, male, middle-aged conservative talk radio host from Virginia, John Fredericks is something close to the Platonic ideal of a Fox News fan.  —  And until last year, he was one.  But then Fox's treatment of the Republican primary race …

Apple, Suppliers Test Tablet With Smaller Screen  —  By By LORRAINE LUK in Taipei and JESSICA E. VASCELLARO in San Francisco  —  TAIPEI-Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers in Asia to test a new tablet computer with a smaller screen, people familiar with the situation said …

WBUR Poll: Brown, Warren Running Neck And Neck In Senate Race  —  BOSTON — A new WBUR-MassINC poll shows U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren running neck and neck.  Forty-six percent of people polled said they would vote for Warren compared to 43 percent for Brown.

Report: 1.8M dead registered to vote  —  The United States's voter registration system is in chaos — with about 24 million registrations are no longer valid and nearly 2 million dead people still on voter rolls, according to a new report Tuesday.  —  Along with the one of every eight voter registrations …

Police: Iranian blows off legs in Bangkok blast  —  BANGKOK (AP) — An Iranian man carrying grenades blew off his own legs and wounded four civilians in a trio of blasts that shook a busy Bangkok neighborhood on Tuesday, Thai authorities said.  —  The explosions came a day after an Israeli diplomatic car …

CDC Warns Untreatable Gonorrhea is On the Way  —  A new strain of gonorrhea is resistant to one of the last known effective treatments  —  Gonorrhea, one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the United States, is increasingly showing resistance to one of the last known effective …

Just Chill Out and Let the NYPD Photograph Your Eyes  —  NYPD spying is not quite as dystopian- and science fiction-seeming as a database of citizens' eye pictures.  A handful of people arrested recently in New York City, including a few Occupy Wall Street protesters, are complaining that cops …

Kate Upton: Cover girl, congressman's niece  —  Kate Upton, the buxom blonde on the cover of this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, has a Washington connection.  —  She's the niece of a congressman: Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

VALENTINE'S DAY GOOGLE DOODLE: Today's charming musical animation makes for one sweet gift  —  SOMETIMES, not even Google keywords can navigate the search for love.  —  Today, Google is celebrating Valentine's Day the world over with a charming animated “Doodle” that is free of dialogue — yet is all heart.

Thank you! … Rating Action: Moody's adjusts ratings of 9 European sovereigns to capture downside risks  —  As anticipated in November 2011, Moody's Investors Service has today adjusted the sovereign debt ratings of selected EU countries in order to reflect their susceptibility …

Pentagon working with FAA to open U.S. airspace to combat drones  —  The military says the nearly 7,500 robotic aircraft it has accrued for use overseas need to come home at some point.  But the FAA doesn't allow drones in U.S. airspace without a special certificate.

Gas prices' earliest-ever rise above $3.50 a bad sign for motorists  —  American motorists have seen the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rise above $3.50 a gallon on just three occasions, but it has never happened this early in the year.  Analysts say it's likely a sign …