Statement from Senator Kirk on Same-Sex Marriage  —  When I climbed the Capitol steps in January, I promised myself that I would return to the Senate with an open mind and greater respect for others.  —  Same-sex couples should have the right to civil marriage.  Our time on this Earth is limited, I know that better than most.

State Sen. Malcolm Smith, city Councilman Halloran arrested in ‘bribery plot’ to rig mayor race  —  State Senator Malcolm Smith was arrested at his home in Queens today.  —  State Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran were arrested this morning on charges they were plotting …

Outrage 101: Radical jailed in slay now Columbia prof  —  Former Weather Underground radical Kathy Boudin — who spent 22 years in prison for an armored-car robbery that killed two cops and a Brinks guard — now holds a prestigious adjunct professorship at Columbia University's School of Social Work, The Post has learned.

Democratic Senator Touts Bill To Allow Patients Involuntarily Committed For Mental Illness To Purchase Guns  —  Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) hinted on Tuesday that he would oppose a Democratic initiative to expand background checks to all gun purchases, but reiterated his support for an NRA-backed measure …

Guns Are Now Required For Citizens Of Nelson, Georgia  —  NELSON, Ga. (AP) — Backers of a newly adopted ordinance requiring gun ownership in a small north Georgia town acknowledge they were largely seeking to make a point about gun rights.  —  The ordinance in the city of Nelson …

Airline to charge overweight passengers more  —  Samoa Air has become the world's first airline to implement “pay as you weigh” flights, meaning overweight passengers pay more for their seats.  —  “This is the fairest way of travelling,” chief executive of Samoa Air, Chris Langton, told ABC Radio.

Obama to Unveil Initiative to Map the Human Brain  —  President Obama on Tuesday will announce a broad new research initiative, starting with $100 million in 2014, to invent and refine new technologies to understand the human brain, senior administration officials said Monday.

Cruz to test 2016 waters with South Carolina trip  —  Cambridge, Massachusetts (CNN) - He's been in Washington only three months, but U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is already planning a pilgrimage to a critical presidential primary state.  —  The outspoken Cruz, a conservative attorney …

Keystone XL Pipeline Draws Broad Support  —  Continuing Partisan Divide in Views of Global Warming  —  OVERVIEW  —  As the Obama administration approaches a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, a national survey finds broad public support for the project.

Tennessee's Colossally Bad Plan to Change Its Primary System  —  You can hear bad ideas almost every day.  But only occasionally do you hear a colossally bad, ill-conceived idea, one that leaves you wondering who dreamed it up.  —  Tennessee state Sen. Frank Nicely, a Republican from Strawberry Plains …

What Marco Rubio is thinking  —  Immigration reform is alive and kicking because Sen. Marco Rubio was there at conception.  It will likely die if Rubio bolts in the end.  —  The possibility that Rubio could walk away, more than any other dynamic, is shaping the final details of new immigration laws, participants tell us.

Sequestration Effects: Cuts Sting Communities Nationwide  —  WASHINGTON — It's now an article of faith that dire sequestration warnings were overblown.  —  New studies downsize potential job losses because of the federal budget cuts.  Agencies have figured ways to ensure that the more alarming effects …

Donor Says He Sought Menendez on Medicare Without Breaking Law  —  Salomon Melgen, the Florida political donor at the center of a criminal probe, said he and Senator Robert Menendez are “like brothers” who spoke weekly, yet his companies never benefited and he broke no laws.

Pat Robertson Blames Ivy League Schools For Lack Of Miracles In America  —  It may have been April 1st yesterday, but televangelist Pat Robertson wasn't kidding when he told a viewer that Americans aren't experiencing God's miracles because they are too “sophisticated.”

Keyes: Marriage Equality is the ‘Archetype of all Crimes Against Humanity’  —  Alan Keyes once again appeared on Stan Solomon's talk show, this time to discuss their stringent opposition to marriage equality.  —  After host, Steve Davis, claimed that just because they “oppose homosexual marriage …

SEC Ex-Chief Lands at Consultant  —  Schapiro Is Latest Former U.S. Regulator to Join Promontory Financial; ‘No Revolving Door’  —  Less than four months after stepping down as the top U.S. securities regulator, Mary Schapiro is joining a consulting firm that has built a reputation …

Rep. Don Young faces backlash for ‘wetback’ slur  —  As lawmakers put the finishing touches on an immigration deal, veteran Rep. Don Young decided this would be a good time to come out with an immigration plan of his own.  His involves calling Latino immigrants “wetbacks.”

Big Agriculture flexes its muscle  —  Yet for all the anger — and belated legal reviews — no one can truly be surprised by the packers' success nor Monsanto's.  Indeed the collapse of the traditional appropriations process in Congress may magnify the power of single-interest lobbies …