Veterans poll: 91 percent back gun checks  —  The vast majority of veterans support universal background checks, a new poll shows.  —  According to a survey commissioned by the organization Vote Vets and the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund, 91 percent of veterans support requiring …

Gun control, immigration and budget talks: Is there a thaw in Washington?  —  For the first time in a while, members of the two parties — at least some of them — appear to be talking about getting things done, even without the deadline of a manufactured crisis looming.

Top Republican Blasts Obama Budget As ‘Shocking Attack On Seniors’  —  Remember those warnings about how instead of welcoming President Obama's adoption of Chained CPI, Republicans would continue to deny him a budget deal and attack him for proposing to cut Social Security?

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: Immigration and the knowledge economy  —  Mark Zuckerberg is founder and chief executive of Facebook and co-founder of Fwd.us.  —  Earlier this year I started teaching a class on entrepreneurship at an after-school program in my community.

Daughter of former Obama pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright indicted … The daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — the controversial former pastor to President Barack Obama — was indicted today in an expanding federal probe of a state grant tied to a former suburban police chief.

Philadelphia abortion clinic horror: Column  —  We've forgotten what belongs on Page One.  —  Infant beheadings.  Severed baby feet in jars.  A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure.  Haven't heard about these sickening accusations?  —  It's not your fault.

90% Bull  —  Fig leaves wilting!  It looks like the requirement that the Border Patrol catch 90% of illegal crossers-reported by the WSJ and touted by both Marco Rubio's chief of staff and my colleague Matt Lewis as an example of the “ tough border enforcement measures” …

Ben Carson steps down as Hopkins commencement speaker … Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson stepped down Wednesday as commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine after complaints from students about controversial comments concerning same-sex marriage.

Gun Shop Where Lanza's Mother Bought Bushmaster Shut Down For Selling To A Felon, Background Check Violations  —  EAST WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) — Federal authorities say a Connecticut gun shop that legally sold weapons used in the Newtown school shootings lost its federal firearms license …

Immigration, gun deals make Tea Party lawmakers restless  —  House conservatives are growing restless.  —  With bipartisan deals emerging on guns and immigration, Tea Party lawmakers in the lower chamber are warning their leaders to slow down.  —  Longtime immigration reform critic Rep. Steve King …

Exclusive: Blair warns Miliband: offer answers, not outrage  —  The former prime minister says Labour must be more than “fellow travellers in sympathy” and warns it not to “tack left on tax and spending”.  —  In his statement on Margaret Thatcher's death earlier this week …

Israel Detains Five Women For Wearing Prayer Shawls At Western Wall  —  JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police on Thursday detained five women at a Jerusalem holy site for performing religious rituals there that ultra-Orthodox Jews say are reserved for men.  —  The detentions come …

Mark Pryor rakes in cash in first quarter  —  Endangered Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) raised nearly $2 million in the first quarter of this year, a financial show of strength his campaign hopes sends a message to state and national Republicans still looking for a candidate to take him on next year.

South Korea Moves to Defuse Tensions With the North  —  SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea appeared to ease its stance on North Korea on Thursday by calling for dialogue to help defuse tensions, as its president moved to calm foreign investors whose confidence the North has tried to shake with increasingly belligerent maneuvers.

Britain snubs Argentina's Fernandez over Thatcher funeral  —  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will not invite Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to Margaret Thatcher's funeral next week in a snub likely to deepen a long-running diplomatic dispute over the Falkland Islands.

David Corn and Mother Jones find themselves with another audio scoop  —  David Corn says one good scoop may have led to another.  And might even lead to still others, too.  —  The Mother Jones magazine reporter and MSNBC pundit was busy Wednesday handling the fallout from, and some fawning over …

Man no longer allowed to visit husband at KC hospital  —  LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — A Lee's Summit man is fighting a restraining order that he says was issued against him after he says he was arrested for refusing to leave the bedside of his sick partner.  —  Roger Gorley went to visit his partner …

Haley Barbour Leaves American Crossroads Amid Concerns Over Conservative Victory Project  —  The powerful fundraising team that American Crossroads deployed in 2012 to pull in more than $300 million has lost ace fundraiser Haley Barbour, according to three GOP operatives close to the super PAC.