Chuck Hagel's Defenseless Performance  —  Nothing could have harmed the nominee for secretary of defense more than his own confirmation answers.  —  It shouldn't have been surprising that the Senate hearings to confirm Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of defense ended up shedding light …

Super Bowl City Leads on Energy Efficient Forefront  —  New Orleans' Mercedes-Benz Superdome features more than 26,000 LED lights on the building's exterior.  The system uses only 10 kilowatts of electricity, equivalent to powering a small home.  Photo courtesy of SMG.

Jindal: 2016 presidential aspirants need ‘head examined’  —  “Anybody on the Republican side even thinking or talking about running for president in 2016, I've said, needs to get their head examined,” Jindal told “Fox and Friends.”  “And the reason I say that is, we've lost two presidential elections …

Can Robert Menendez survive?  —  In a state with a colorful history, it takes a lot for a New Jersey politician to cross the line into political toxicity.  —  Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez has found himself at the center of a growing controversy, with accusations swirling of a questionable friendship …

Secret House group close to immigration-reform agreement  —  A bipartisan group of House negotiators is even further along in drafting a comprehensive immigration overhaul than its counterpart in the Senate, but the path to passage in the lower chamber is lined with thorns.

The Other GOP Plan To Blow Up The Electoral Vote  —  GOP efforts to rig the Electoral College in favor of GOP presidential candidates may be close to dead, but a group of Republicans are hard at work at another plot to blow up the system: switch to the popular vote.

Obama, Gore, stop whining about right-wing media  —  Editor's note: Howard Kurtz is the host of CNN's “Reliable Sources” and is Newsweek's Washington bureau chief.  He is also a contributor to the website Daily Download.  —  (CNN) — I never realized that the conservative media were so eye-poppingly powerful.

Friends of Fraud  —  Like many advocates of financial reform, I was a bit disappointed in the bill that finally emerged.  Dodd-Frank gave regulators the power to rein in many financial excesses; but it was and is less clear that future regulators will use that power.

Senate to Move on Gun Control  —  Senate Democratic leaders expect to introduce a gun bill that includes most of the proposals backed by President Barack Obama, with the notable exception of a ban on military-style, semiautomatic weapons, a top aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said.

Tagg, you're it for GOP Senate hopes  —  Tagg Romney is considering a run in the special Senate election now that Scott Brown has opted out, the Truth Squad has learned.  —  Calls for Romney, 42, to join in the short campaign to replace Secretary of State John F. Kerry have increased since …

Car park skeleton is Richard III  —  The skeleton is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ the remains of Richard III  —  A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park has been confirmed as that of English king Richard III.  —  Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.

Mass Shooter Confesses He Learned to Hate White People in College  —  Killer Nkosi Thandiwe learned all about hating whitey in college.  —  Nkosi Thandiwe shot dead 26-year-old Brittany Watts and and injured two other women in the parking deck of the Proscenium building on July 15, 2011.

Paul Krugman Destroys GOP's Talking Points On Government Jobs  —  On Sunday, economist Paul Krugman hit back against GOP claims that public sector employment has increased under Obama, and that such jobs consist mainly of wasteful bureaucrats and somehow count less economically than private sector ones.

Will Wall Street spurn GOP in 2014?  —  Wall Street donors and bundlers plunged hundreds of millions of dollars into the GOP's effort to take back the White House and Senate this year — and now some are threatening to cut off the spigot ahead of 2014 in the face of disappointing results.

Americans Closest to Retirement Were Hardest Hit by Recession  —  Young graduates are in debt, out of work and on their parents' couches.  People in their 30s and 40s can't afford to buy homes or have children.  Retirees are earning near-zero interest on their savings.

Ex-Navy sniper killed at Texas gun range  —  (CNN) — Former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, author of the best-selling autobiography “American Sniper,” was one of two people killed Saturday at a gun range, authorities said.  —  The 38-year-old, who declared himself the “most lethal sniper in U.S. history …

Crossroads effort mocked on right  —  Two powerful conservative groups reacted with scorn Sunday to a newly unveiled American Crossroads initiative, dubbed the Conservative Victory Project, that plans to work against Republican primary candidates it views as unelectable.