Fiscal cliff: Major progress toward deal  —  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Joe Biden engaged in furious overnight negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff and made major progress toward a year-end tax deal, giving sudden hope to high-stakes talks …

NBC reporter raises Hillary Clinton questions  —  The top science reporter for NBC News raised questions Monday about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's hospitalization, raising the possibility the blood clot causing isn't linked to an earlier concussion.  —  “It's not exactly clear …

Greenwich Village couple busted with cache of weapons, bombmaking explosives: sources  —  The privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and her boyfriend — a Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist — have been busted for allegedly having a cache of weapons and a bombmaking explosive in their Greenwich Village apartment.

Let's Give Up on the Constitution  —  AS the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken.  But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.

How the ‘Dairy Cliff’ Will Cream Consumers  —  Got milk?  Enjoy the price you paid, because federal policy, reaching its sell-by date, will have dire results.  —  If the price of milk zooms up shortly after Jan. 1, the increase will come courtesy of a venal and feckless U.S. Congress.

Republican party is ‘devoid of a soul’, says Jon Huntsman  —  The Republican Party is leaderless and “devoid of a soul” but can rebuild in the wake of its election defeat if it embraces its history of supporting limited government, according to Jon Huntsman.  —  Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman