War on leaks threatens your right to know: Our view … Intimidation tactic serves to hide all manner of government secrets.  —  When President Obama talked about reporters and reporting last week, he struck a conciliatory chord.  Obama said he was troubled “that leak investigations may chill …

Obama to Pick Former Bush Official to Lead F.B.I.  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to nominate James B. Comey, a former hedge fund executive and a former senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush, to replace Robert S. Mueller III as the director of the Federal Bureau …

Threatening letters to Bloomberg test positive for ricin  —  (CNN) — Preliminary tests indicate ricin was found in letters sent this past weekend to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York deputy police commissioner Paul Browne said Wednesday.  —  Browne said the letters to Bloomberg contained …

Release Detail  —  May 30, 2013 - American Voters 4-1 Want Special Prosecutor For IRS, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; But Fixing Economy Is More Important, Voters Say 3-1  —  American voters say 76 - 17 percent, including 63 - 30 percent among Democrats, that a special prosecutor …

TV Ratings: MSNBC Falls Below HLN in May, Rachel Maddow Hits Lows  —  Fox News Channel maintains a handsome lead in primetime and total day, while primetime runner-up CNN continues a healthy climb from the lows of 2012.  —  “The Rachel Maddow Show”  —  HLN's wall-to-wall coverage …

The Lois Lerner state  —  It is appropriate that the worst scandal of the Obama administration— the IRS targeting of conservatives — is a scandal of administrators and bureaucrats, of otherwise faceless people endowed with immense power over their fellow citizens and running free of serious oversight from elected officials.

Sequester not biting District yet  —  In the months since the automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester took effect, the Washington area has added 40,000 jobs.  Income-tax receipts have surged in Virginia, beating expectations.  Few government contractors have laid off workers.

I was a liberal mole at Fox News: From Bill O'Reilly to Roger Ailes, here's all the inside dope  —  Inside the beast: O'Reilly hates Hannity.  Producers know what's acceptable.  Everyone fears a call from Roger Ailes  —  Excerpted from “An Atheist in the FOXhole: A Liberal's Eight-Year Odyssey Inside …

Bobby Rush rips Mark Kirk's mass gang arrests proposal as ‘elitist white boy solution’  —  Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) is highly critical of a proposal by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) for mass arrests of 18,000 Gangster Disciples, telling the Sun-Times on Wednesday that Kirk's approach is …

Annals of the Security State: ‘Is Puerto Rico in America?’  —  Here are two more, from people willing to go on the record under their real names.  Previous entries here, here, here. … Now, from David Rivera, who runs a small business in San Diego: … No more “analysis” at the moment.

IRS's Shulman had more public White House visits than any cabinet member  —  Publicly released records show that embattled former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times during the Obama administration, more recorded visits than even the most trusted members of the president's Cabinet.

Officials: Man who knew Boston bombing suspect was unarmed when shot  —  A Chechen man who was fatally shot by an FBI agent last week during an interview about one of the Boston bombing suspects was unarmed, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.  —  An air of mystery has surrounded …

Adam Levine caught on hot mic: ‘I hate this country’; Responds to backlash with douche-tweets … Yes, yes he did.  On “The Voice” Tuesday night, a hot mic picked up coach Adam Levine saying, “I hate this country,” as one member of Team Adam advanced and two others were voted off the show.

Former Microsoft manager has big ideas about marketing retail pot  —  Former Microsoft manager Jamen Shively wants to create the first national brand of retail marijuana — and to open pot trade with Mexico.  He plans to announce that and more Thursday.  —  Former Microsoft manager Jamen Shively wants …

The Distribution of Major Tax Expenditures in the Individual Income Tax System  —  A number of exclusions, deductions, preferential rates, and credits in the federal tax system cause revenues to be much lower than they would be otherwise for any given structure of tax rates.

Obama's poll numbers hold up despite the storm of scandal  —  Obama's 7 percentage-point positive margin in Gallup is better than where he stood before the IRS scandal broke.  —  President Obama's approval ratings have increased since a trio of controversies involving his administration began dominating the news cycle.

LePage renews claims of State House censorship  —  ‘The minute we start stifling our speech, we might as well go home, roll up our sleeves and get our guns out,’ the governor says.  —  AUGUSTA - Gov. Paul LePage is still upset about being silenced during a recent meeting …

New York City Wants to Revive Old Voting Machines  —  New York City has spent $95 million over the past few years to bring its election process into the 21st century, replacing its hulking lever voting machines with electronic scanners.  —  But now, less than three years after the new machines …