The Monster of Monticello  —  Durham, N.C.  —  THOMAS JEFFERSON is in the news again, nearly 200 years after his death — alongside a high-profile biography by the journalist Jon Meacham comes a damning portrait of the third president by the independent scholar Henry Wiencek.

Fiscal Cliff Fictions: Let's All Agree to Pretend the GOP Isn't Full of It  —  It's really amazing to see political reporters dutifully passing along Republican complaints that President Obama's opening offer in the fiscal cliff talks is just a recycled version of his old plan …

Police: Chiefs player kills girlfriend then kills self  —  Police are investigating two deadly shootings Saturday morning that they said are related.  —  The shootings involve a Chiefs player and his girlfriend.  —  The first shooting was reported about 8 a.m. at a home near East 54th Terrace and Crysler Avenue.

Infrastructure Spending Needed: Century-Old New Jersey Bridge Collapses For Second Time In Four Years  —  A bridge in Paulsboro, New Jersey collapsed Friday morning, derailing a train carrying highly flammable and carcinogenic vinyl chloride into Mantua Creek.

School Quotas and Speech Codes May Result From Senate Amendment to Defense Bill  —  Suing schools and colleges has nothing to do with supporting our troops.  —  But that didn't stop Senators from seeking to add an amendment, SA 3215, to the 2013 Defense Authorization bill on Thursday …

Nate Silver: Politico Covers Politics Like Sports But ‘Not In An Intelligent Way At All’  —  New York Times polling guru Nate Silver took aim at Politico's brand of reporting on Friday, saying the Washington-based news outlet covers politics like sports but “not in an intelligent way at all.”

THINGS IN POLITICO THAT MAKE ME WANT TO GUZZLE ANTIFREEZE, PART THE INFINITY  —  I've become a connoisseur of Charlie Mahtesian's “On Politics” column in Tiger Beat On The Potomac, even though its title seems just a tad redundant.  (It's not like TBOTP has a sports page or extensive coverage of The Arts.)

Study: American Households Hit 43-Year Low In Net Worth  —  WASHINGTON (CBS DC) - The median net worth of American households has dropped to a 43-year low as the lower and middle classes appear poorer and less stable than they have been since 1969.  —  According to a recent study …

NORQUIST: NEW, LARGER ‘TEA PARTY SECOND WAVE’ COMING  —  “We are about to have a Tea Party second wave that will dwarf the first wave and that is because while ‘spend too much’ brought the Tea Party into existence, we're about to walk into ‘spend too much, regulate too much, and tax too much,’ all together.

In Latest Campaign, Obama Takes Deficit Battle to the Public  —  HATFIELD, Pa. — The blue “Forward.” signs with the lonely period were gone.  But U2's “City of Blinding Lights” once again blared over the loudspeakers, and some in the audience broke into a chant of “fired up, ready to go!”

House cuts back on Fridays  —  The House is scheduled to be in session on only 15 Fridays in 2013, an almost 30 percent drop from 2011, according to the calendar released by House Majority leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Friday.  —  In 2011, there were 21 scheduled Fridays, against only 15 planned for 2013.

Israel Moves to Expand Settlements in East Jerusalem  —  JERUSALEM — As the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the Palestinians' status Thursday night, Israel took steps toward building housing in a controversial area of East Jerusalem known as E1 …