Dr. Ben Carson apologizes, offers to withdraw from Hopkins speech  —  Hopkins surgeon says he apologizes if he ‘offended anyone’ with comments on gay marriage  —  Dr. Benjamin Carson, the famed Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, apologized Friday for his “choice of words” and use of examples …

North Korea plan to attack US mainland revealed in photographs  —  North Korea has revealed its plans to strike targets in Hawaii and the continental United States in photos taken in Kim Jong-un's military command centre.  —  Related Stories  — Judge investigating Nicolas Sarkozy receives bullet in post

Don Young sorry for ‘poor choice of words’  —  Rep. Don Young apologized Friday for using the term “wetbacks” in an interview earlier this week — his second response to the issue that came only after a firestorm of criticism from his own party leaders.  —  “I apologize for the insensitive term …

White House Weighing Entitlement Limits  —  Budget May Include Plan to Restrict Inflation Adjustments for Social Security, Other Programs, Along With New Revenue  —  WASHINGTON—The White House is strongly considering including limits on entitlement benefits in its fiscal 2014 budget …

Republicans, Get Over the 2012 Loss—and Start Fighting Back  —  Those who counsel that the GOP should move left are wrongheaded or Democrats, or both.  —  “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.

Video: Planned Parenthood Official Argues for Right to Post-Birth Abortion  —  Florida legislators considering a bill to require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion were shocked during a committee hearing this week when a Planned Parenthood official endorsed a right to post-birth abortion.

Why Republicans Won't Flip on Gay Marriage  —  There may be no one in the country with a more thorough and granular knowledge of the electorate than Jim Messina, President Obama's data-obsessed campaign manager.  Earlier this week, Messina dropped by Bloomberg's Washington office to talk …

Paying the Costs of Iraq, for Decades to Come  —  A little over ten years ago, George W. Bush fired his economic advisor, Lawrence Lindsey, for saying that the total cost of invading Iraq might come to as much as $200 billion.  Bush instead stood by such advisors as Paul Wolfowitz …

Scalia's gay adoption claim: Even wronger than I thought  —  On Wednesday, I wrote about Justice Antonin Scalia's comment that “there's considerable disagreement among sociologists as to what the consequences of raising a child in a single-sex family, whether that is harmful to the child or not.”

Showing Support for Marriage Equality on Facebook  —  The U.S. Supreme Court this week met to begin debating the future of same-sex marriage in the United States.  To accompany this historic event, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) started urging people on Monday, March 25 to change …

Supreme Court Memo: Supreme Court's Glimpse at Thinking on Same-Sex Marriage  —  WASHINGTON - Why did the Supreme Court agree in December to hear a major same-sex marriage case and then seem to think it had made a terrible mistake on Tuesday when it came time for arguments?

Time to Get Serious  —  Barack Obama is a serious man.  Yes, he likes to golf, and yes, he ran a campaign with cutesy Facebook pictures and seemingly inane Flash slideshows like “Life of Julia.”  No, he does not seem interested in the mechanics of legislation, nor does he seem adept at negotiation.

Climate Change Endgame In Sight?  —  In my Weekly Standard cover story about the fallout from the “Climategate” email scandal three years ago, I offered the following question by way of prediction: … The article then went on to survey emerging research (U.S. government funded!) …

Deal Reached to Force Paid Sick Leave in New York City  —  New York is poised to mandate that companies with 15 or more employees provide paid time off for them when they are sick.  —  A compromise agreement reached Thursday night resulted from a raw display of political muscle by a coalition …

Palin's SarahPAC Embarrassment: Consultants Are Cashing In  —  The ex-governor and VP pick railed against political consultants at CPAC.  But her latest FEC filings show they took millions of dollars from her in the last election cycle.  —  She's baaaack.

What Is The Purpose Of Foreign Language Education?  —  I am almost two years into my study of French.  I write okay.  I read pretty poorly.  I speak pretty poorly.  And my ear is woeful.  I'm somewhere in the A2 range, which is probably a good reflection of the actual directed hours I've put in.

Soaring Bee Deaths in 2012 Sound Alarm on Malady  —  BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A mysterious malady that has been killing honeybees en masse for several years appears to have expanded drastically in the last year, commercial beekeepers say, wiping out 40 percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed …