The big sequester gamble: How badly will the cuts hurt?  —  Evan Vucci/AP - President Barack Obama speaks in Chicago Feb. 15, 2013.  The president and congressional Republicans each seem content with the political ground they hold and are prepared to let across-the-board spending cuts take effect on March 1.

Senators near a deal on background checks for most private gun sales  —  A bipartisan group of senators is on the verge of a deal that would expand background checks to all private firearms sales with limited exemptions, but significant disagreements remain on the issue of keeping records …

13 GOP Pennsylvania Senators Introduce New Plan To Rig The Electoral College For Republicans … Earlier this year, Republican National Committee Chair urged Republican lawmakers in states “that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red” — i.e. blue states with Republican legislatures …

Court Finds No Right to Conceal a Firearm  —  DENVER (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that permits allowing people to carry concealed weapons are not protected by the Second Amendment.  —  The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit was issued Friday …

Violent, Drunk and Holding a Gun  —  Multiple mass shootings by deranged young men have made keeping firearms out of the hands of mentally ill people a big part of the gun debate.  —  Given the enormity of those crimes, that is understandable.  Federal law does, in fact …

ObamaCare and the ‘29ers’  —  How the new mandates are already reducing full-time employment.  —  Here's a trend you'll be reading more about: part-time “job sharing,” not only within firms but across different businesses.  —  It's already happening across the country at fast-food restaurants …

Coming Up on ‘This Week’: Two Powerhouse Roundtables  —  This Week with George Stephanopoulos (U.S House of Representatives/U.S House of Representatives/Wall Street Journal/Getty Images)  —  Two powerhouse roundtables join George Stephanopoulos to tackle the latest challenges at home and abroad, Sunday on “This Week.”

Dumbest Man on Internet's New Paranoid Fantasy: VA Prohibits Veterans From Owning Guns!  —  Yes, another stupid lie from Jim Hoft  —  Charles Johnson  —  Insane paranoid fantasies gush out of the right wing like water from a firehose, and today Jim Hoft, the legendary dumbest man on the Internet …

On the sequester, the American people ‘moved the goalposts’  —  I don't agree with my colleague Bob Woodward, who says the Obama administration is “moving the goalposts” when they insist on a sequester replacement that includes revenues.  I remember talking to both members of the Obama administration …

John Kerry heading overseas  —  Secretary of State John Kerry is embarking on his first official overseas voyage, bringing new ideas to capitals in Europe and the Middle East on how to end nearly two years of brutal violence in Syria.  —  Kerry leaves Washington on Sunday on a grueling nine-nation …

Proposed design of NC illegal immigrant licenses sparks concern  —  RALEIGH, N.C. - A new driver's license expected to be issued to some illegal immigrants in North Carolina has prompted state lawmakers and immigrant rights groups to voice concerns over the proposal.

TED CRUZ RESPONDS TO ‘NEW MCCARTHY’ NEW YORKER ARTICLE: ‘CURIOUS’ THEY WOULD ‘DREDGE UP A 3-YEAR-OLD SPEECH & CALL IT NEWS’ … Sen. Ted Cruz's office told TheBlaze it was “curious” that the New Yorker would dig up a years-old speech for the purpose of dubbing him “our new McCarthy.”

House Republicans Strip Protections From LGBT Victims In New Violence Against Women Act  —  The Violence Against Women Act expired at the end of 2012 after House Republicans refused to accept the Senate bill's protections for LGBT, Native American, and undocumented victims.