AP NEWSBREAK: HARKIN WON'T SEEK 6TH SENATE TERM  —  You are here  —  Home » United States Congress » AP NewsBreak: Harkin won't seek 6th Senate term  —  CUMMING, Iowa (AP) — U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin will not seek re-election in 2014, the Iowa Democrat said Saturday.

Boehner full of regret over ‘fiscal-cliff’ moves  —  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is sharing his regrets about his “fiscal-cliff” strategy, less than a month after the House bitterly swallowed a last-minute deal hatched in the Senate.  —  In a private speech to the Ripon Society on Tuesday …

Sarah Palin Parts Ways With FOX News  —  After a three-year run as a paid contributor to the nation's highest-rated cable news channel, Sarah Palin and FOX News have cut ties, according to a source close to the former Alaska governor.  —  “It's my understanding that Gov. Palin was offered a contract by FOX …

Starting Today, It's Illegal to Unlock Your Cellphone  —  You likely have a cellphone that you bought from a carrier, like AT&T, Verizon or Sprint, and that phone only works on that carrier's cellular and data network — unless you “unlock” it.  —  That is a software process that allows …

Five Races in Which the Gun Debate Matters  —  In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., the politics of gun control turned upside down — or so the proponents of increased firearms regulations would like to believe.  The reality, however …

Obama wants country to appreciate Hillary  —  President Barack Obama said Friday that he wanted to do a joint interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton because he wants the country to appreciate the extraordinary role she has played in his administration.

What Nate Silver Gets Wrong  —  Can Nate Silver do no wrong?  Between elections and baseball statistics, Silver has become America's secular god of predictions.  And now he has a best-seller, “The Signal and the Noise,” in which he discusses the challenges and science of prediction …

Michigan legislators weigh changes to Electoral College rules  —  Some Republicans want to replace current winner-take-all vote with proportional system  —  Lansing — Michigan is one of five states debating changes to how its Electoral College votes are counted as part of a Republican push …

Statement by Chairman Pearce on recess appointment ruling  —  Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued a decision finding that the Jan. 4, 2012 recess appointments of three members to the National Labor Relations Board were invalid.  In response, Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce issued the following statement:

Social Security's disability trust fund could fail to cover all benefits early as 2016  —  As President Obama faces pressure on the left to defend federal entitlement programs from the benefit cuts that the Republicans say are necessary to keep the programs solvent decades down the road …