Becoming Obama  —  When Barack Obama met Genevieve Cook in 1983 at a Christmas party in New York's East Village, it was the start of his most serious romance yet.  But as the 22-year-old Columbia grad began to shape his future, he was also struggling with his identity: American or international?

Newt Gingrich $4 Million in Debt; Staffers and Creditors Fume  —  Newt Gingrich ends his White House dream today with his political committee facing a mountain of debts — owing about $4 million to scores of businesses and campaign workers around the country who fear they will never get paid.

Wife of NC State Senator: Amendment One Needed ‘To Protect the Caucasian Race’  —  I don't even know where to begin to unpack this trash.  Chad Nance who is a freelance journalist in Winston-Salem and is covering the election here in NC, recorded the wife of NC Sen. Peter Brunstetter confirming …

New York Post Mocks Obama's Afghanistan Trip  —  Two schools of thought: Obama is at risk of being seen as politicizing national security.  Or, any day spent talking about Osama Bin Laden, and not the economy, is a good one.

A beating at Church and Brambleton  —  The Virginian-Pilot  —  Wave after wave of young men surged forward to take turns punching and kicking their victim.  —  The victim's friend, a young woman, tried to pull him back into his car.  Attackers came after her, pulling her hair …

Chen Guangcheng leaves U.S. embassy; deal to guarantee his safety may be unraveling, friends say  —  BEIJING — Blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who fled de facto house arrest last month and sought refuge for six days at the U.S. Embassy, left the diplomatic compound on Wednesday …

Berean Baptist pastor disavows advice to punch gay kids as a joke  —  A Fayetteville pastor says he was joking when he told parents in a sermon Sunday to hit children who show signs of being gay.  —  Sean Harris, pastor of Berean Baptist Church on Glensford Drive, said he does …

The curious resignation of Richard Grenell  —  The political world is buzzing over the sudden resignation of Richard Grenell, the former spokesman for John Bolton at the UN who had signed on to serve as foreign policy spokesman for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.  Grenell was scheduled to begin work Tuesday, May 1.

Washington Post Rebuts Obama's Malicious Lie  —  Barack Obama never lets truth get in the way of political advantage.  Nothing new about that; mendacity has been a consistent theme of his 3 1/2 years in office.  But it seems that more media outlets are willing to call the president on his falsehoods these days.

DEA Ignored All My Cries: Student  —  “They never came back, ignored all my cries and I still don't know what happened,” Chong said.  —  Daniel Chong, the UC San Diego student who was left in a Drug Enforcement Agency holding cell for nearly five days, said the time spent in his cell was a life-altering experience.

No, Kathleen Sebelius Does Not Need A Legal Memo To Ignore False Anti-Contraception Legal Arguments  —  Conservative media outlets are downright gleeful over a recent exchange between Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius that culminates …

Factory Orders Post Biggest Decline in Three Years  —  New orders for U.S. factory goods in March recorded their biggest decline in three years as demand for transportation equipment and a range of other goods slumped, government data showed on Wednesday.  —  The Commerce Department said orders …

Second West Virginia Dem unsure about Obama  —  (CNN) - West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat, said in an interview published Wednesday he's unsure if he'll vote for President Barack Obama in the upcoming general election.  —  Tomblin is the second prominent Democrat from West Virginia …

A better case for Keystone XL  —  THE CASE FOR ultimately approving the Keystone XL pipeline — always strong — has grown stronger.  —  A key environmentalist argument against Keystone XL has been that the project would encourage the extraction of bitumen, a particularly dirty oil-like substance, from the “oil sands” in Alberta.

“Occupy” Movement Was Infiltrated By FBI Informant In Cleveland Bridge Bombing Probe  —  Buster  —  The federal probe that resulted last night in the arrest of five purported anarchists for allegedly plotting to bomb an Ohio bridge began last year at an Occupy Wall Street rally in Cleveland …

About Peter R Orszag  —  Bad Models Mistook Housing Bust for Dot-Com Bubble  —  In a speech last month about the financial crisis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke trenchantly noted that the initial losses from the dot-com bust were about the same size as those from the housing meltdown …

‘The Passage of Power,’ Robert Caro's New L.B.J. Book  —  “The Passage of Power,” the fourth installment of Robert Caro's brilliant series on Lyndon Johnson, spans roughly five years, beginning shortly before the 1960 presidential contest, including the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis …

Ethics watchdog asks FCC to revoke Fox's broadcast licenses  —  An ethics watchdog group is using the hacking scandal in the United Kingdom to call on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to cancel Fox's broadcast licenses.  —  The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government …