Postal Service to Cut Saturday Mail  —  ABC OTUS News - US Postal Service to End Saturday Mail Delivery (ABC News)  —  Apparently trying an end-run around an unaccommodating Congress, the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week.

Hagel Tells Lawmakers He Can't Provide Details On Speaking Engagements, Foreign Funders  —  “He is basically telling Senators they have no right to know if he has been unduly influenced by foreign governments or foreign agents over the last five years.  What is he hiding?”  GOP aide says.

With Brennan Pick, a Light on Drone Strikes' Hazards  —  SANA, Yemen — Late last August, a 40-year-old cleric named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber stood up to deliver a speech denouncing Al Qaeda in a village mosque in far eastern Yemen.  —  It was a brave gesture by a father of seven …

We Had To Tax The Retirement Plan In Order To Save It  —  Duncan (He can't be Sirius) Black, the econ degree holder formerly known as Atrios, explains in USA Today that baby boomers face a retirement crisis which can only be solved by raising both taxes and Social Security benefits.  Really:

Karl Rove Is Not a Conservative  —  Karl Rove — “The Architect,” as President George W. Bush called him — crafted Bush's two presidential campaigns and served as a key player in Bush's White House.  —  Now, with an assist from The New York Times, Rove is presenting himself as a conservative leader.

Poll Finds a Boost for Obama on Handling Immigration  —  Public approval of Barack Obama's handling of immigration has jumped to a career high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, buttressed by majority support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and, much more broadly, endorsement of stricter border control.

CNN Host Destroys Supporter Of Boy Scouts Discrimination For Equating Pedophilia With Being Gay  —  CNN's Soledad O'Brien challenged the conservative opposition to keeping gays scouts and leaders out of the Boy Scouts on Wednesday morning, comparing the organization's ban to past restrictions on African Americans and women.

Women's Unclean Breasts Cause Diarrhoea, Says Egypt Prime Minister Hisham Qandil  —  By VASUDEVAN SRIDHARAN: Subscribe to Vasudevan's RSS feed  —  Egypt's prime minister, Hisham Qandil - Reuters  —  The inability of women in rural Egypt to clean their breasts is causing a diarrhoea epidemic …

Obama to nominate REI chief Sally Jewell for Interior Secretary  —  President Barack Obama on Wednesday will nominate Sally Jewell, president and CEO of the outdoor and recreational retailer REI, to replace outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a White House official confirmed to POLITICO.

Embattled Scott plans $100M campaign vs. Crist  —  Rick Scott is preparing to defend the Florida governorship with the most expensive reelection campaign in state history, drawing up plans for a battleship-sized political operation aimed at overcoming the Republican's deep personal unpopularity.

Deficit Obsession Has Hurt The Recovery: CBO  —  Here's the buried lede from the Congressional Budget Office, which on Tuesday released its Budget and Economic Outlook for the coming decade: D.C.'s deficit obsession has been quite effective at cutting deficits at the expense of the still-struggling economy.

FIRST ON CNN: Panetta to recommend pay cut for military  —  Just days before he leaves office, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is recommending military pay be limited, effectively decreasing troop salaries next year.  —  Panetta will recommend to Congress that military salaries be limited to a 1% increase in 2014.

Ahmadinejad: Iran already a nuclear state, but has no intention of launching attack on Israel  —  In interview with Al-Ahram on eve of Islamic Summit Conference in Cairo, Iranian president also says his country opposes outside intervention in Syria.  —  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad …

Chris Rock stands up for gun control  —  President Barack Obama knows best when it comes to gun control, according to comedian Chris Rock.  —  “The president and the first lady are kind of like the mom and the dad of the country,” Rock said at a press conference on gun laws in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

Fox News drops Dick Morris: Hooray  —  No more Fox News contributor Dick Morris.  His contract to spout republic-damaging nonsense on Fox airwaves has expired, and the network isn't renewing it.  —  Taken together with the news that Sarah Palin will no longer be contributing …

Carney says reports of replica Oval Office under construction ‘are false’  —  “Reports about a replica Oval Office are false, and no one is moving from the West Wing,” Carney said at his daily press briefing.  —  Real Clear Politics reported that the government was building a new executive office …