Shift on Executive Power Lets Obama Bypass Rivals  —  WASHINGTON — One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda.  He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power …

Obama's campaign whisperer  —  Barack Obama's top advisers are making a mid-"core" correction in their attacks on Mitt Romney — with a little nudge from Bill Clinton, who is finding a niche as an Obama campaign whisperer and fundraiser.  —  Late last year, as Romney galloped to the right …

Poll: Just three percent have favorable view of John Edwards  —  CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.  —  (CBS News) With opening arguments in the trial of former U.S. senator and presidential candidate John Edwards set …

Jon Huntsman Trashes GOP, Expresses Campaign Regrets  —  Former Republican presidential candidate compares his party to Communist China.  Says Reagan would have trouble winning GOP primary in this political environment.  Regrets opposition to 10-1 spending cuts to tax increase deficit deal.

An $8 billion trick?  —  Call it President Obama's Committee for the Re-Election of the President — a political slush fund at the Health and Human Services Department.  —  Only this isn't some little fund from shadowy private sources; this is taxpayer money, redirected to help Obama win another term.

Romney's healthcare plan may be more revolutionary than Obama's  —  Instead of getting coverage at work, more Americans would shop for it on their own.  That would mean more choices — and more risk.  —  Republican candidate Mitt Romney says he would dump President Obama's healthcare overhaul and replace it with something else.

HOW THE MEDIA COVERED THE 2012 PRIMARY CAMPAIGN  —  LESS HORSE RACE THAN 2008  —  By Tom Rosenstiel, Mark Jurkowitz and Tricia Sartor of PEJ  —  Mitt Romney needed 15 weeks once the primary contests began to gain a secure hold over his party's nomination for president.

White killer whale adult spotted for first time in wild  —  “Iceberg” is believed to be the first mature white orca observed  —  Scientists have made what they believe to be the first sighting of an adult white orca, or killer whale.  —  The adult male, which they have nicknamed Iceberg …

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher can't enter Afghanistan  —  Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Monday he was denied entry into Afghanistan because of his critical views of that country's government.  —  “Apparently, [Afghanistan President Hamid] …

Obama targets foreign nationals' use of new technologies in human rights abuses  —  President Obama issued an executive order Monday that will allow U.S. officials for the first time to impose sanctions against foreign nationals found to have used new technologies, from cellphone tracking …

Ron Paul not quitting  —  Ron Paul said Monday he has no plans to end his campaign and is staying in the race since “maybe somebody will stumble” on the way to the convention.  —  Paul told CNBC's “Squawk Box” that even if Mitt Romney secures the delegates needed for the nomination …

Yet another new survey shows that Republican supporters know more about politics and political history than Democrats.  —  On eight of 13 questions about politics, Republicans outscored Democrats by an average of 18 percentage points, according to a new Pew survey titled “Partisan Differences in Knowledge.”

State GOP served with eviction papers for its St. Paul office space  —  The debt-plagued Republican Party of Minnesota is getting kicked out of its party headquarters near the state Capitol.  —  Massachusetts-based Hub Properties Trust filed paperwork in Ramsey County on Wednesday to evict …

Cynthia McKinney back and running for her old congressional seat  —  Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is preparing to run for her old 4th Congressional district seat on the Green Party ticket.  —  McKinney was defeated by 4th district incumbent Hank Johnson in 2006 …

Hill Poll: Romney leads in respect on working women issue  —  More voters think Mitt Romney and the Republican Party respect women who work outside the home than think President Obama and the Democrats respect women who stay at home, according to the latest The Hill Poll.

Hugh Hefner: GOP ‘war against sex’  —  Although it's his magazine, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner doesn't frequently take to its pages to wax poetic about one thing or another.  In the May issue, however, Hefner pens a rare, full-page editorial on an unsurprising topic: Sex.  —  This time, it's political, however.