Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily  —  Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama  —  • Read the Verizon court order in full here  —  • Obama administration justifies surveillance

Christie Picks Chiesa, New Jersey's Attorney General, to Be Interim Senator  —  Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey on Thursday announced the appointment of Jeffrey S. Chiesa, the state's attorney general, to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank R. Lautenberg.

Manhunt over, Deval Patrick tied one on  —  Candid gov discusses attacks  —  By:  —  Gov. Deval Patrick gave a candid, behind-the-scenes look at the horrific days after the Boston Marathon bombings, telling employees at a Cambridge marketing firm yesterday he got “quite drunk” the day after the intense manhunt finally ended.

IRS Staff Cite Washington Link  —  Two Workers Tell Congress That Agency Officials Helped Direct Tea-Party Reviews  —  Two Internal Revenue Service employees in the agency's Cincinnati office told congressional investigators that IRS officials in Washington helped direct the probe of tea-party groups that began in 2010.

Gay Marriage Gains Ground in Poll as Court Readies Ruling  —  More than half of Americans support allowing same-sex couples to marry, endorsing the goal of gay-rights activists as the U.S. Supreme Court this month prepares to rule on the issue for the first time.

GOP to Darrell Issa: Cool it  —  Shortly after Darrell Issa dubbed Jay Carney a “paid liar” on CNN last Sunday, House Republican leadership staffers called the California Republican's aides with a message: Cool it.  —  Issa's aides promptly responded: The remark was over the top, they agreed …

Virginia candidate E.W. Jackson: Yoga leads to Satan  —  E.W. Jackson, the Virginia GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, suggested that yoga could open individuals to Satan, according to a report.  —  Accompanying a profile of Jackson, who has been a thorn in the side …

The Hidden Jobless Disaster  —  At the present slow pace of job growth, it will require more than a decade to get back to full employment defined by prerecession standards.  —  The market tanked Wednesday on bad preliminary job news.  And so, when Friday's jobs report is released …

House votes to defund Obama's ‘administrative amnesty’ for immigrants  —  The House voted Thursday morning to defund President Obama's orders that allow officials to focus deportation efforts on illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes.  —  Republicans have argued that these orders amount …

Mass. pair sues New York Post over Marathon bombing portrayal  —  A Massachusetts teenager and his 24-year-old friend filed a defamation lawsuit against the New York Post Wednesday in Boston, accusing the tabloid of falsely portraying them as suspects in the deadly Marathon bombings by plastering …

Health care law's unpopularity reaches new highs  —  President Barack Obama's signature health care reform law remains unpopular with the American public just months before it fully goes into effect, according to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.  —  The poll shows 49 percent …

It's Time to Hit the Reset Button on the Fiscal Debate  —  Endnotes and citations are available in the PDF version of this report.  —  The federal budget has dominated the policy and political debate in Washington over the past three years.  During this time, both the underlying fiscal landscape …