Feinstein Snaps At Cruz: 'I'm Not A Sixth Grader' (VIDEO)  —  Republican Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, rankled the nerves of Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday during a contentious hearing on legislation, introduced by the California Democrat, that would reinstate a federal ban on assault weapons.

In meeting with Senate GOP, president says he's not setting a trap on deficit  —  President Obama pledged in a private meeting with Senate Republicans on Thursday to challenge his own party on entitlement reform.  —  He also asked Republicans not to believe conspiracy theories that he is pushing …

Former Web Producer Indicted in California for Conspiring with “Anonymous” Members to Attack Internet News Site  —  A former web producer for a Tribune Company-owned television station in Sacramento, Calif., was charged today in an indictment for allegedly conspiring with members of the hacker group …

Religious right calls Chief Justice Roberts' adoption of 2 kids “second best”  —  It's already being called the religious right's “47% video.”  John Eastman, the chairman of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the lead religious right organization fighting against marriage equality for gay couples …

Dick Morris Delivers Bad News To Republicans: Give Up On Roe V. Wade  —  “Well, we lost,” said Republican strategist Dick Morris as he took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of suburban Washington, D.C., on Thursday.  And in order to win the next election …

Chris Hayes to Take Over 8 P.M. Slot on MSNBC  —  Chris Hayes will take over the 8 p.m. time slot on MSNBC in the next month, the channel is expected to announce on Thursday morning, the day after the current host of that hour, Ed Schultz, said he was moving from the weekdays to the weekends.

Paul chastises ‘stale and moss-covered’ GOP establishment  —  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday told conservative activists the Republican Party had grown “stale and moss covered” and said the GOP needs a more libertarian approach that makes freedom the movement's defining principle.

Cuts to court system ‘simply unsustainable,’ Justice Kennedy warns  —  The cuts to the court system from sequestration are “simply unsustainable,” Justice Anthony Kennedy warned Thursday.  —  The judicial branch is subject to a 5 percent cut under sequestration.

Dems plotting to lay a tax trap for GOP  —  I'm told that national Democrats are planning to mount a major campaign to hammer Republican candidates — particularly ones in swing areas — over a specific aspect of the Paul Ryan budget: The possibility that it could result in middle class tax hikes.

President Obama: I'm no Dick Cheney on drones  —  President Barack Obama's defense to Democratic senators complaining about how little his administration has told Congress about the legal justifications for his drone policy: Dick Cheney was worse.  —  That's part of what two senators …

Religion Among Americans Hits Low Point, As More People Say They Have No Religious Affiliation: Report  —  The number of Americans who claim to have no religious affiliation is the highest it has ever been since data on the subject started being collected in the 1930s, new research has found.

Exclusive: Court Docs Reveal Blackwater's Secret CIA Past  —  It was the U.S. military's most notorious security contractor—but it may also have been a virtual extension of the CIA.  Eli Lake reports.  —  Last month a three-year-long federal prosecution of Blackwater collapsed.

Why Gun Makers Fear the NRA  —  In the days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre on Dec. 14, executives with a half-dozen major U.S. gun manufacturers contacted the National Rifle Association.  The firearm industry representatives didn't call the NRA, which they support with millions …

Physicists say they have found long-sought Higgs boson  —  GENEVA - The search is all but over for a subatomic particle that is a crucial building block of the universe.  —  Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago …