Argument recap: DOMA is in trouble (FINAL UPDATE)  —  Analysis  —  If the Supreme Court can find its way through a dense procedural thicket, and confront the constitutionality of the federal law that defined marriage as limited to a man and a woman, that law may be gone, after a seventeen-year existence.

‘Rude’ lawmaker Louie Gohmert pulls rank on cops over parking ticket  —  A Texas Republican congressman got into a late-night verbal altercation with U.S. Park Police officers earlier this month, pulling rank in an attempt to get out of a parking ticket near the Lincoln Memorial.

Poll: 80% of Americans unhappy with Washington  —  The Sequester  —  Americans continue to believe the sequester cuts will be bad for the country (41 percent) in the long run, and just 28 percent expect their effect to be good for the country.  However, the view that sequester will have no impact …

CIA director faces a quandary over clandestine service appointment  —  As John Brennan moved into the CIA director's office this month, another high-level transition was taking place down the hall.  —  A week earlier, a woman had been placed in charge of the CIA's clandestine service for the first time in the agency's history.

Customers Flee Wal-Mart Empty Shelves for Target, Costco  —  Margaret Hancock has long considered the local Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) superstore her one- stop shopping destination.  No longer.  —  During recent visits, the retired accountant from Newark, Delaware, says she failed to find …

‘Biggest ever attack’ slows internet  —  The row centres on the blocking of a web-hosting company alleged to be hosting spam websites  —  The internet around the world has been slowed down in what security experts are describing as the biggest cyber-attack in history.

Poland Is Not Yet Lost  —  But its leaders remain determined to give disaster a chance.  —  Poland is one of Europe's relative success stories.  It avoided the severe slump that afflicted much of the European periphery, then had a fairly strong recovery:  —  As you can see …

Oops, TSA guy goes spray-zy!  —  A bumbling TSA agent “playing around” with a pepper-spray container at Kennedy Airport fired the caustic liquid at five fellow screeners yesterday, sending all six to the hospital, a source told The Post.  —  The agent, Chris Yves Dabel …

Sebelius: Some Could See Insurance Premiums Rise  —  Some people purchasing new insurance policies for themselves this fall could see premiums rise because of requirements in the health-care law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Tuesday.

Local Airport Closures Cause GOPers Sequestration Anxiety  —  We've noted previously that outside Washington D.C. — where politicians and reporters obsess endlessly over inconsequential but high-valence things like White House tours and Easter egg hunts — sequestration is beginning to cause real harm, and political pain.

Our Story  —  We created POLITICO with a simple promise: to prove there's a robust and profitable future for tough, fair and fun coverage of politics and government.  To do this, we cling to a simple principle: always hire the most talented editors, reporters and newsroom staff and then set …

White House defends Secret Service pick  —  White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Wednesday defended the selection of Julia Pierson to head the Secret Service after a report in the Washington Post suggested her pick provoked resentment from rank-and-file agents who felt she had spent relatively little time in the field.

Same Sex Marriage and Gilligan's Island Game Theory  —  After 28 years of wedded bliss and 2 kids, I'm guessing I'm probably the Conversation's resident marriage champ.  (It was an arranged Hindu ceremony, I was 3 and she was 2.)  And there's nobody who can better attest to the joys and benefits of a traditional monogamous union.