Obama and the IRS: The Smoking Gun?  —  “For me, it's about collaboration.”  — National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley on the relationship between the anti-Tea Party IRS union and the Obama White House  —  Is President Obama directly implicated in the IRS scandal?

A rare peek into a Justice Department leak probe  —  When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.

UPDATED: Virginia GOP Nominee For Attorney General Introduced Bill Forcing Women To Report Their Miscarriages To Police  —  If a woman in Virginia has a miscarriage without a doctor present, they must report it within 24 hours to the police or risk going to jail for a full year.

A bushel of Pinocchios for IRS's Lois Lerner  —  In the days since the Internal Revenue Service first disclosed that it had targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, new information has emerged from both the Treasury Inspector General's report and congressional testimony Friday …

News!  —  Everyone, I'm elated to tell you that Tumblr will be joining Yahoo.  —  Before touching on how awesome this is, let me try to allay any concerns: We're not turning purple.  Our headquarters isn't moving.  Our team isn't changing.  Our roadmap isn't changing.

On Yahoo-Tumblr  —  It now looks pretty certain that Yahoo has pulled off a deal to buy Tumblr for 1.1B.  The relationship between WordPress and Tumblr has always been pretty friendly: Tumblr's own blog used to be on WP, WordPress.com supports Tumblr as a Publicize option alongside Twitter and Facebook …

The Good News About Race and Voting  —  Election polling data show that few Americans of any race report any problems casting a ballot.  —  In the next several weeks the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the requirement that several states, mostly in the South …

Four key Hillary Clinton staffers from 2008 unlikely to sign on for 2016 bid  —  Howard Wolfson, the 2008 communications director for Hillary Rodham Clinton, has said he will not return for a 2016 presidential campaign.  Neither, for that matter, will Neera Tanden, the campaign's policy director.

Gay activists pressure Sen. Chuck Schumer on immigration  —  Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called a meeting with prominent New York gay elected officials and activists amid concern over whether a provision sought by same-sex couples will be included in the immigration reform bill, POLITICO has learned.

Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul Push For Hemp Legalization In Senate Fight  —  WASHINGTON — Kentucky's two senators, Republicans Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, have been working to include a provision that would legalize industrial hemp into the farm bill, according to Senate and Kentucky sources …

True Scandal  —  Catherine Engelbrecht's tale has all the markings of a classic conspiracy theory: She says she thinks that because of her peaceful political activity, she and her family was targeted for scrutiny by hostile federal agencies.  —  Yet as news emerges that the Internal Revenue Service wielded …

Arabs Fly Nazi Flag near Hevron  —  Residents of Gush Etzion astounded to see Nazi flag flying near the mosque of Beit Omar.  —  Hundreds of residents of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, were astounded Monday morning to see an oversized Nazi flag flying next to a mosque in the Arab town of Beit Omar.

Climate slowdown means extreme rates of warming ‘not as likely’  —  The impacts of rising temperature are being felt particularly keenly in the polar regions  —  Scientists say the recent downturn in the rate of global warming will lead to lower temperature rises in the short-term.