Scott Walker opens up about White House ambitions  —  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker acknowledged in an interview Friday that he's open to a presidential bid and pointedly declined to pledge to serve a full four-year term if he's reelected next year.  —  Walker insisted he was visiting Iowa …

Brian Brown, NOM Leader, At CPAC: Prop 8 Challenge Is ‘Biggest Strategic Mistake’ of Gay Rights Movement  —  A day before GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio reversed his position and came out for marriage equality, Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) …

Federal Judge Finds National Security Letters Unconstitutional, Bans Them  —  Ultra-secret national security letters that come with a gag order on the recipient are an unconstitutional impingement on free speech, a federal judge in California ruled Friday.  —  U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered …

Obama doubles down on alternative energy  —  President Barack Obama is doubling down on the administration's plan to reinvest federal oil-and-gas drilling revenues into next-generation alternative energy technology, unveiled during his State of the Union address last November.

Ryan: Democrats' budget puts US on path ‘straight into debt crisis’  —  House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Saturday said he wants the federal government to cut back on spending, just like an American family would.  —  Ryan used the weekly GOP address to promote …

Weiner Polled for N.Y. Mayoral Bid  —  Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner's dormant New York City mayoral campaign paid more than $100,000 to a San Francisco-based polling firm earlier this month, suggesting the once-prominent Democrat whose career was derailed by allegations he sent salacious texts …

Gingrich calls for GOP to stand for principles, implement new ideas  —  Newt Gingrich said on Saturday that while the Republican Party doesn't need new principles, it does need to rethink the way it implements those principles, using a candlestick and a light bulb to illustrate his point.

CPAC Event On Racial Tolerance Turns To Chaos As ‘Disenfranchised’ Whites Arrive  —  This post has been updated.  —  A CPAC session sponsored by Tea Party Patriots and billed as a primer on teaching activists how to court black voters devolved into a shouting match as some attendees demanded justice …

Democrats Try And Fail To Catch Conservatives Cheering Ashley Judd's On-Screen Death  —  CPAC crowd unmoved by the big moment, video shows.  No gotcha here.  —  WASHINGTON — Democrats hoped to catch attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference cheering the on-screen death …

Jeb Bush: GOP can't be ‘anti-everything’  —  Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) called for an aspirational, big-tent conservative movement Friday night, telling leaders that the GOP “must move beyond the divisive and extraneous issues that currently define the public debate.”

A lengthy weather report again affirms global warming  —  SCIENTISTS HAVE a good sense of what the Earth's climate has been like over the past handful of centuries.  But what about many thousands of years back?  —  In a recent article in the journal Science, researchers at Oregon State University …

Maryland will be 18th state to ban death penalty  —  The state legislature completed action to repeal capital punishment.  Gov. Martin O'Malley will sign the ban.  —  Maryland's General Assembly on Friday completed its repeal of the death penalty, nearly 40 years after the U.S. Supreme Court restored capital punishment.

The Anti-Choice Olympics  —  Ever since the 2010 elections, Republican legislators and governors have been in a competition to see who can enact the most blatantly unconstitutional—at least according to existing precedents—laws on abortion in the country.  The first batch …