TRENDING: Republicans request investigation of Obama travel  —  (CNN) - President Barack Obama isn't just playing politics - he may be committing fraud on the taxpayer's dime, the Republican National Committee charged on Wednesday.  —  In a letter to the Government Accountability Office …

EXCLUSIVE: New Secret Service scandal centers on strippers, prostitutes in El Salvador  —  U.S. Secret Service agents brag they routinely use third-world prostitutes while conducting out-of-country security detail for Presidential visits  —  Sponsored Links  —  SEATTLE —

A Bad Day In Court for the Obama Administration  —  Some years ago, I worked on a big case in Alaska and spent a lot of time there.  At that time, the local bar was buzzing about a lawyer who had a really bad day in court: he was kicked to death by a moose in the parking lot of the federal courthouse in Anchorage.

VIDEO: EPA Official Compares Agency Enforcement to Roman Crucifixions  —  A video surfaced on Wednesday showing a regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency comparing his agency's philosophy with respect to regulation of oil and gas companies to brutal tactics employed …

George Zimmerman: Prelude to a shooting  —  (Reuters) - A pit bull named Big Boi began menacing George and Shellie Zimmerman in the fall of 2009.  —  The first time the dog ran free and cornered Shellie in their gated community in Sanford, Florida, George called the owner to complain.

Romney fundraiser: Donors ‘coming out of the woodwork’  —  Mitt Romney's fundraising has skyrocketed since he became the de facto nominee, a top Romney fundraiser told The Hill Wednesday evening.  —  “People are coming out of the woodwork,” said the fundraiser, who requested not to be named.

OBAMA'S FALLON APPEARANCE VIOLATED CAMPAIGN LAW  —  Last night, President Obama appeared on Jimmy Fallon's unwatchable show to “slow-jam the news.”  By this, Fallon meant that Obama would read a campaign speech about student loans, Fallon would utter a few lines to back him up every so often …

Romney's principled, radical view for America  —  It turns out that there is at least one question on which Mitt Romney is not a flip-flopper: He has a utopian view of what an unfettered, lightly taxed market economy can achieve.  —  He would never put it this way, of course …

News, And Not News  —  The Times poses a puzzle on its front page today - in the world that brought us Trayvon Martin, what is news, and what is not news?  In the course of asking they continue their non-coverage of Summer Moody and Matthew Owens, two stories with Trayvon Martin resonance that don't fit any comfortable Times template.

Liberia's Charles Taylor guilty of aiding, abetting war crimes  —  LONDON — In a landmark case, former Liberian President Charles Taylor has been convicted of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity through his arming of ruthless rebel groups in neighboring Sierra Leone in exchange for so-called blood diamonds.

Mitt Romney's Appointment of Gay Aide Richard Grenell Signals New Attitude  —  Last week, Mitt Romney hired Richard Grenell as his new foreign policy spokesman.  Grenell was President Bush's communications director at the United Nations for eight years, and has been a spokesman for a handful …

White House Correspondents' Dinner guest list: The latest  —  Newsweek/The Daily Beast Actress Reese Witherspoon; “The Help” star Viola Davis; J.R. Martinez of “Dancing With the Stars”; Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Gen. David Petraeus; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand …

Will Log Cabin endorse Romney?  —  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Blade file photo by Michael Key)  —  Mitt Romney swept a series of GOP presidential primaries this week as news surfaced that Newt Gingrich will suspend his campaign on Tuesday.

White House approves broader Yemen drone campaign  —  The United States has begun launching drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen under new authority approved by President Obama that allows the CIA and the military to fire even when the identity of those who could be killed is not known, U.S. officials said.

Crossroads ad attacks Obama's ‘celebrity’ presidency  —  A new ad released Thursday by the conservative super-PAC American Crossroads seeks to use President Obama's “cool” status against him, appealing to the youth vote by asking how America's “biggest celebrity” has helped them find jobs.

Family misses flight after TSA screeners target disabled 7-year-old  —  Dina Frank, who is developmentally disabled, wound up on the TSA's radar at John F. Kennedy Airport  —  Dr. Joshua Frank, a pediatrician, and his 7-year-old daughter Dina, who has cerebral palsy.

Vogue's flattering article on Syria's first lady is scrubbed from Web  —  It may have been the worst-timed, and most tin-eared, magazine article in decades.  —  “Asma al-Assad is glamorous, young, and very chic — the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies,” writer Joan Juliet Buck began …

2 House Democrats Defeated After Opposing Health Law  —  WASHINGTON — The defeat of two conservative House Democrats by more liberal opponents in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary illustrates the strong hold the new health care law still has over committed Democratic voters and foreshadows …

House to vote on student loans  —  An electoral battle between President Obama and Republicans over young voters escalated Wednesday when Speaker John Boehner scheduled a Friday vote to stop interest rates on student loans from doubling this summer.  —  Boehner (R-Ohio) coupled the vote …

Centrist lawmakers find themselves on losing end of 2012 races  —  Next year's Congress might be the most polarized yet thanks to the loss of centrist lawmakers — a trend emphasized in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primaries.  —  “The middle is getting squeezed,” ex-Rep. Tom Davis (Va.) …

The Morning Plum: GOP backed into corner on student loans?  —  Is the battle over student loans shaping up as a rerun of the payroll tax cut fight, which by all accounts badly damaged the GOP?  —  Consider the parallels.  Just as in the payroll tax cut battle, there's a looming deadline …